Chances are if you know the name Alice Englert it’s for her roles in such films as Beautiful Creatures, Ginger & Rose, and most recently, You Won’t Be Alone. But she’s also the daughter of acclaimed filmmaker Jane Campion, and a director, as well. Her feature-length debut, Bad Behaviour, premiered earlier this year at Sundance and now a new trailer has arrived for the film despite not having a firm release date.
Englert wears all of the hats in this one, directing as well as writing the screenplay, on top of composing the score. She co-stars alongside Jennifer Connelly, Ben Whishaw, Dasha Nekrasova, Beulah Koale, and Marlon Williams in the story of a mother and former child actress in the midst of a spiritual crisis.
Here’s the synopsis: Lucy seeks enlightenment. The former child actress makes a pilgrimage to join her guru, Elon Bello, for a silent retreat at a beautiful mountain resort with a Tesla-crammed parking lot. Before she shuts off her phone to the world, Lucy reaches out to her daughter, Dylan — a stunt person training for a dangerous fight scene — to interrupt her concentration and announce that she will be unavailable and out of range, and that she is very worried about her, and that she might extend her stay. It is co-dependent, bad behavior. When a young model/DJ/influencer at the retreat is paired up with Lucy to do a mother/daughter role-playing exercise, hellfire stokes Lucy’s bad behavior to an astonishing low.
This past Sundance was overloaded with movies from the children of well-established Hollywood professionals, and some of them were pretty terrible. Bad Behaviour has its share of issues, as well, mostly to do with the uneven tone, but ultimately I liked that Englert trusted her instincts and her cast.
We’ll let you know once Bad Behaviour scores a stateside release date.
