Luckiest Girl Alive is one woman’s story of confronting her tragic past

Mike Barker (Best Laid Plans, Shattered) directs Jessica Knoll’s debut screenplay (based on her debut novel) about Ani Fanelli (Mila Kunis), a New Yorker whose life seems perfect. She’s got a writing job at a women’s magazine, a posh apartment, and a handsome fiancé—Luke Harrison (Finn Wittrock)—from an old-money family. As her wedding approaches, her mother, Dina (Connie Britton), shows up to “help,” while simultaneously a documentary film crew led by Aaron Wickershan (Dalmar Abuzeid) is pressuring her to do an on-camera interview about a 14-year-old tragedy at her posh private high school. Soon her perfect life begins to unravel. (113 min.)

Glen You know the old saying, “Don’t judge people. You don’t know what they’ve gone through?” Luckiest Girl Alive is that saying brought to life. When we first meet Ani, we sense something’s off about her. She feels like a fraud in her life. She hides things from Luke and her best friend, Nell (Justine Lupe), and she’s got a dark streak that comes out when she’s stressed. At first, she’s hard to like, but as the pressure builds toward her wedding, as her strained relationship with her mother bubbles to the surface, and as she’s forced to confront her tragic past, we begin to see the source of her inner turmoil. In a flashback with Chiara Aurelia as young Ani, her high school desperation as the new, poor girl trying to fit in at a snobby high school comes to light, as well as her trauma that led to the event the documentary film crew aims to uncover. I wasn’t especially drawn in at first, but this story soon had me.

Anna Ani is hell-bent on creating the perfect life. She’s got the handsome socialite who showers her with designer everything and whose family is putting on the perfect Nantucket wedding. Seemingly her carefully designed life is going well, but it’s clear Ani has a whole lot of trauma she isn’t dealing with. Her mother is a source of some of it: In flashbacks, we see Dina both body shame her teenage daughter and moments later treat her like the finest cut offered up at the meat market when she drops her off at her new high school. But when the documentarian shows up, Ani’s carefully crafted bubble around her new life starts to implode. She’s rushed into a world where her past is confronting her—not just physically with people from her past, but her mind starts to lose control of her curated persona. I, too, wasn’t immediately drawn in. In fact, I groaned in the first few minutes while Ani was telling the audience what “kind” of person she is. But I warmed to her story and was soon engaged. Kunis has a knack for keeping things interesting on-screen.

Glen Ani isn’t helped by the fact that Dean Barton (Alex Barone), another survivor of their high school tragedy, has gone on the talk show circuit to self-aggrandize his role. Because Ani has never spoken publicly about what happened, some have conjectured she may have had a role in it, but clearing her name comes with a host of other risks, not to mention a huge privacy invasion. I’m sure this all sounds very mysterious, but it would ruin the film if we revealed details. Suffice it to say, Ani is faced with difficult choices. Not only is Kunis terrific, but I loved Jennifer Beal as her cutthroat editor Lolo Vincent, not to mention Scoot McNairy as her high school teacher Andrew Larson. The film explores personal weakness and what it takes to face your demons. Ignore the critics, stick with it through the first act, and you’ll be rewarded.

Anna It seems Ani’s finally ready to stop running from the past and start confronting it. She’s been demonized because of the situation that unfolded, and she made a chameleon-like change. When she runs into Mr. Larson years later, he doesn’t even recognize her even though they had a strong bond before. When Ani decides to speak with the documentary crew despite hesitation from her family and friends, she’s taking the power of the past trauma back into her own hands—and that ultimately is a strong message. Where she disappeared before under attack and scrutiny, she rises and fights and names names of those whose past sins have not been punished. The things about Ani’s character in the beginning are actually helpful in the end. Δ

Senior Staff Writer Glen Starkey and freelancer Anna Starkey write Split Screen. Glen compiles listings. Comment at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.

This article appears in Oct 20-30, 2022.