Building A Mystery: Dressed To Kill vs. Held Hostage In My House

Two movies about unmasking a criminal, frank sexuality, and a very dedicated son — it's Dressed To Kill vs. Held Hostage In My House.

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Every episode of Tasteless, I take a critically acclaimed film and compare it to one that shares the same themes but didn't get the attention it deserves — and explain why that second movie is my pick. This week: two movies about unmasking a criminal, frank sexuality, and a very dedicated son. It's Dressed to Kill versus Held Hostage in My House. You know what doesn't get enough credit? Lifetime movies. And that's what we're getting into today.

Dressed To Kill

A mysterious blonde woman kills one of the patients of a psychiatrist and then goes after the high-class hooker who witnessed the murder.

This movie came out in 1980. It has an 83% on Rotten Tomatoes. It's a Brian De Palma movie, and Brian De Palma is just cool. All of his movies aren't for me, but I appreciate what he's doing. My favorite of his is one of his newer-ish films Passion, which I've covered on Tasteless. He of course directed Carrie, Blow Out, Carlito's Way, Body Double, Scarface — on and on. He has a distinct and very impressive resume.

Now, does he understand women? He depicts them good and bad, and I think his depictions are interesting, but he definitely paints in broad brushstrokes. Not always a bad thing. Nancy Allen in this film does really well with the ditzy but cool role she has as a sex worker who witnesses a murder. The briefer screen time of Angie Dickinson is completely compelling. And De Palma has his signature moves — there is split diopter out the wazoo on Dressed to Kill.

Angie Dickinson kicks off this film basically fully naked. She's hanging out. She's having a great time. Sex dreams. She's going to the museum. She's making a shopping list where she has items like eggnog and nuts. Very balanced diet at her household. Sounds like my fridge, honestly. This family is malnourished. She goes on to cheat on her husband with a man who waves a white glove at her, which I think is very rude. The glove-waving, not the cheating. Although I guess cheating is kind of one of the rudest things you can do.

Nancy Allen was married to Brian De Palma at the time, so he wrote the role for her. She's kind of a dummy. At one point she says, I wouldn't know sodium from Adam. Well, okay, you knew enough to make that little quip, Nancy. She gets embroiled in a big old mess because she witnesses the person who has just killed Angie Dickinson in an elevator — a blonde woman with big sunglasses and a razor. She is really slow to react to this dying woman, but then someone else pops their head out of the apartment down the way and thinks she's done something bad. Then Nancy's very, very ready to run. Oh, somebody's dead. Oh, I might be in trouble. I gotta get out of here. I get it.

She's on the phone in this movie trying to move money around, buying shares. Very finance bro. She'd be in on the whole GameStop thing if the character was around today. Good head on her shoulders, savvy, even if she talks down her own intelligence.

It's a really cool pairing that she teams up with Angie Dickinson's son in the film, Peter, played by Keith Gordon. He's building his own computer thing at home, totally geeky, but he loves his mom so much. When she's killed he sets out to figure out who did it. The two of them mostly deal with a police detective played by Dennis Franz and Angie Dickinson's psychiatrist played by Michael Caine.

I love this piece of trivia about Michael Caine, because I think of him as such a good guy — mostly because I've seen Miss Congeniality 100 times. IMDB trivia shares that Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen, and Keith Gordon all praise Michael Caine's generosity and professionalism on this film. As the main star, he was only ever required to be on set when his character was in shot, but all three stated he insisted on also being there when his character was not in shot, so his co-stars were always performing to his character, not to a stand-in or nothing at all.

That is really rare. When they're shooting a film and getting one angle of coverage, they can just be showing Nancy Allen's face — no one has to actually be on the other side. But it can only help for there to be a human being you're reacting off of. Think of when Ian McKellen was crying on the set of Lord of the Rings because he was stuck with just green balls on sticks. Acting can be such a collaborative thing and should be. I really respect that Michael Caine was there and not just sitting in his trailer.

And spoilers for Dressed to Kill from 1980. Michael Caine is playing a dual role here — Dr. Elliott the psychiatrist, constantly being hit on at work, and also Bobbi, the blonde killer who murders his patients. The film kind of conflates dissociative identity disorder with being trans. It's not necessarily that Michael Caine's Dr. Elliott character wishes to be Bobbi, but that these two pieces are at war inside of him — with Bobbi becoming enraged by the reminder of Dr. Elliott's masculinity whenever he gets aroused. Unfortunately a ton of his hot female patients hit on him and then Bobbi has to murder them.

I do think this idea of his uncontrollable male side disgusting this female side that doesn't feel seen or represented — it's interesting. But it's conflating a lot of different things. The movie plays it both ways. It's complicated. I could see being frustrated by it. But it really feels more like a Split with James McAvoy type situation than anything else. Dressed to Kill is an interesting watch, a great De Palma representation of what he does really well. It's currently streaming on Prime Video.

Held Hostage In My House

A single mother becomes trapped inside her own vacation rental and must piece together clues from the various guests who have stayed there in order to figure out who assaulted her and hopefully survive.

This came out in 2024. It has no Rotten Tomatoes score.

You know me. You know if there is a new Anna Elizabeth James joint, I will be seated. Writer, director — I love how she approaches filmmaking. There is an ethereal quality to her movies, a lightness even amongst decay and ruin. She presents a very female gaze that is unlike most of what you find in cinema, especially in the thriller genre. A genre that as much as there are strong women in it, is really lacking women behind the camera. So I'm glad that's a genre she works within.

This Lifetime film, a Lifetime crossover, is perfect to introduce her brilliance to the masses — because a Lifetime movie is made in its big strokes, and Anna nails the big moments while providing tons of subtler pieces to keep a maybe more nuanced or intense film fan engaged.

Her movie Deadly Illusions, which I am notably obsessed with, continues to be served to me in the thriller section of Netflix. I love that her work remains so relevant. I talked in my Black Swan versus Deadly Illusions episode about how important the feeling of a film can be and how Anna's films just have this overall vibe that sucks you in. Held Hostage in My House is no exception.

This is also the first Airbnb movie I've seen besides maybe Barbarian, which is such a great piece of current culture to tap into for horror. Such an uncontrolled thing that so many people turn to for leisure or for income. Held Hostage in My House is basically the worst Airbnb experience ever. And also maybe will make you less mad about those cleaning fees, knowing about all the ants and pie and threesomes the homeowners have to clean up after. Okay, I'm not pro-landlord. But it's a fun new world to explore on film.

The cast is wonderful. Really solid actors in new sorts of roles — I don't think anyone was really playing to type. Amy Smart is our lead. She's this incredibly thoughtful, empathetic, but also realistic mom dealing with a divorce, shared custody of her beloved son, and changes in her lifestyle as a single woman. She's renting out a home she inherited as a gorgeous Airbnb and she loves it — loves connecting with people from all over the world, providing this haven for them. The house is gorgeous. I love all the locations of this film.

Her son Charlie, played by Harrison Fox, is just a good kid who loves his mom. He heads off to spend time with his dad, Matthew Davis — who I adore, Vampire Diaries, Legally Blonde. He's so good at this sort of... in this film he's a skeez, but in this realistic way that's even more maddening because he just doesn't take Amy seriously. He's disrespectful in this very toxic-masculinity-but-quiet way that is so prevalent, but if you complain about it you look crazy.

And most excitingly — he's starting a new life with his new girlfriend played by Greer Grammer. This is now Greer's third time at least working with Anna Elizabeth James. She was the lead antagonist of Deadly Illusions, and the more I revisit that film the more impressed I am by the villainous role she took on. She's just so good on screen, so watchable.

By the way, she loves walking in on a woman taking a bath — between Deadly Illusions and Held Hostage in My House. If I ever see another Greer Grammer film where she doesn't bust in on a relaxing soak, I'm going to riot. Just like how Tom Cruise has to run in all of his films, Greer, you better bust in on that bath. No one can relax when she's around.

Amy Smart is accosted — I'm still laughing thinking about the tub — she's hit over the head, tied to her bed in the rental, à la Gerald's Game. Only instead of her gross dead husband, she's haunted by the memories of people who have recently stayed at the home as she tries to tease out who might have done this to her. So many people have crossed the threshold and her life is so tumultuous that she's remembering all these interactions, innocent or not, with suspicion.

Our suspects include Billy Zane as this airy, metrosexual type who honestly gave me very Michael Caine vibes in his delivery. He has a little scarf, he's so warm and open, but also — what's he got going on? Airbnb threesomes, for one, which he politely invites Amy to, and she just as politely declines. I love how casual this film is about sex. She's not like, oh my God, scandalous! She's just like, no, but here's where the Wi-Fi router is, and thanks so much, have fun.

Billy Zane is like if a bunny became a human man. There's something whimsical about his performances.

Amy Smart really anchors the film with this breezy but realistic sensibility. She plays a mom who seems like she could be a mom but who isn't hung up on our media stereotypes of moms. She at one point has the phone on speaker and is yelling into it, which is actually how people talk on speakerphone. I respect those little touches.

Ne-Yo is an art professor jealous of Amy's art skills — Amy's this talented artist in the film. Another very cool touch: they use real art. All of her character's art was actually painted by a woman named Valentina Sarfeh, who is credited immediately following the film. Love that. Ne-Yo is on our suspect list because he'd love to claim her art for his own. I find this thread interesting because I imagine it would be really difficult to be a teacher of something like art and have people come through your classroom with more talent than you. I couldn't handle that. 100%, I couldn't.

Ramona, played by Masha King — what a character. She's a straight-up madame who Amy kind of narcs on. She's definitely providing company from women to men and definitely has reasons to want to screw Amy over. Jason Wesley as Gabriel felt outed by Amy. There's a love interest named Youssef, played by Jay Lee, who is maybe too good to be true — suspicious. Ex-husband Matthew Davis wants to propose to Greer and start a new family and forget Amy ever existed. Greer wants that perfect family. There's the best friend Victoria, played by Ava Gaudet, with a jet-setting lifestyle. The film shows the difference without placing judgment on either woman's choices. That's rare and impressive.

As I said about Anna Elizabeth James, the gaze of her camera is pretty unique. The view of Amy in this film is very much a woman's gaze, and I found this impressive in the new Demi Moore movie The Substance as well — where the female form is seen in a completely different way because it's not being pushed through the filter of a man and male executives. That's something I've come to expect and deeply appreciate in Anna's films.

Held Hostage in My House has this particularly dreamy, escapist feeling, making the viewer question even further what's real and what isn't. Amy's son is desperately trying to get in touch with her as she lays there starving, scared, and some ants are coming way too close because she left some pie out. There's something really upsetting about ants tapped into here. Certain bugs I'm fine with — I love spiders, I love bees — but seeing these ants start to swarm is unnerving. This particularly hit home for me because I probably would leave some pie out and then be tied up and then be killed because of that.

It's on Lifetime. You can watch it free on the Lifetime app. Give it a go.

Shared Themes

Dressed to Kill and Held Hostage in My House are mysteries that wield sexuality to throw the viewer off the scent of the killer.

In Dressed to Kill, our hero Nancy Allen is a sex worker. The cops aren't particularly kind to her and she's not seen as a super credible witness. Angie Dickinson talks frequently about being sexually unsatisfied. The killer is dramatically feminine, with flowing locks and big sunglasses. As we discover, when Michael Caine becomes aroused by a woman it triggers his rage — the killer female part of his identity emerges. It's the sexuality of Angie Dickinson and later Nancy Allen that creates this unease within him. But the film doesn't judge any of these women in the way you'd expect. We're presented their lives matter-of-factly and they're no less capable because of who they sleep with.

Jealousy is always a really good motive for murder, so Angie Dickinson's dalliances and Nancy Allen's line of work have us thinking of a zillion possible killers before we would ever consider the psychiatrist.

Held Hostage in My House features the most chill Airbnb host ever, and she is down with anyone's proclivities. When she narcs on Ramona running a prostitution ring, it's honestly not even out of judgment — it's more like, I don't want to go to jail for what my house is being used for, there are definitely liabilities there. Plus I don't think you can run a business from a home, and this lady was trying to run a full sex business from an Airbnb. There isn't guilt when Amy Smart sleeps with the new guy or shaming of her friend's more fun lifestyle. Everyone is really accepting of themselves, so the motives for her hostage situation are so much more interesting than just sexual jealousy. We've got revenge, we've got shame — there's a lot at play.

Neither of these movies ever really says that in typical slasher fashion, they got killed because they had sex. That's never what happens here.

When I watched Held Hostage in My House, I immediately thought of Dressed to Kill. There's just something about them — watch them together and you'll see why. And then I was really excited when I realized there's this key surprising shared factor: in these films, the characters who are really the moral center, the grounded heroes, are the sons of our main characters. Two momma's boys who just want to get justice for their mothers, who will do anything for her — in a way that's never played as a joke. It's not a Buster on Arrested Development type of thing, but instead a reflection of what wonderful mothers they have, how healthy their relationships are.

In Dressed to Kill, our semi-grown kid Peter, Keith Gordon the computer genius — his mom Angie Dickinson maybe doesn't understand him, but she adores him. She lets him skip a dinner they're going to if he promises to get some sleep, knowing he's dying to work on his little 80s computer setup. She respects his hobbies and wants to learn about what he's doing. When she's killed he doesn't fold in on himself but instead refocuses on finding who did it.

His pairing with Nancy Allen, who has no children of her own and has lived really only for herself for a long time — it's this great odd couple. He's book-smart and she's street-smart and they each have a respect for the other's point of view. This movie is very much about women, about the feminine, about the desire for feminine energy, and his character throws a total wrench in that while also fitting perfectly into the De Palma formula.

Held Hostage in My House has a younger kid. Harrison Fox is the son — he's a little guy who has to put all the skills his mom taught him to use in saving her. He is driven by pure love and he knows something isn't right with his mom and sneaks home in a kid-safe Uber to rescue her. I love how they handled his involvement because it could have been super unbelievable that this kid saved his mom from masked intruders. But he happened to show up at the right moment when chaos had already been sown, and he's there for his mom right when she needs him most.

He is everything to her. Their relationship is clearly a massive component of each of their lives, something they define themselves by. It's sweet to see him repeatedly checking in on her with his dad while also respecting his dad's boundaries of phone usage. He's not overzealous, but when he feels something is wrong, he acts.

His mere existence gives her the strength to survive. If I was tied up near all my loose pie fillings, I would 100% be thinking about my cats and living for them. But they would probably be the ones to find me and then eat me. So it works out better for Amy Smart.

What Held Hostage In My House Does Better

Dressed to Kill, though it is inventive, feels like many other works. Held Hostage in My House feels like something new.

Dressed to Kill is very much a Hitchcockian mystery. It has been criticized for massive similarities to Psycho. That's not a knock — it's done well. De Palma hits the same beats in his films. That also isn't a knock. I like his style. Yeah, we get it, we can see the foreground and the background in one shot, congratulations. If you haven't seen this film, absolutely watch it. I bet if I took a film class teaching it, I would be delighted to dissect it. There's a lot of meat on that bone. It exemplifies this sort of twisted mystery. It's stylish and a blast to put on.

However, I have never seen a movie like Held Hostage in My House. While there are thematic elements across Anna Elizabeth James's body of work, all of her films have their own unique tones. The dreamy quality of this film that I've referenced is hard to pull off. It might not have worked in another film, but it works here. It puts you in mind of this woman being pulled in every direction. From the chronology to the choice of camera angles, this movie is unique.

The representation in Dressed to Kill is not nearly as inclusive as what you see in Held Hostage in My House. I am very impressed that a film on Lifetime was so... what's the positive version of woke?

Dressed to Kill was shocking only in its reveal, not in its actual telling. No one went in knowing it would be about a trans character. It's mostly about murdered white women. Held Hostage in My House has a diverse cast. It deals with taboo subjects and does so without making any of it a big deal — because it isn't.

We have men who are wonderful and men who are evil. We have women who are warm and women who are cold. We have different relationships playing out in ways that might not be the most honest but are authentic to those couples — from the closeted man cheating on his wife, to the guy who has a wife and a girlfriend down to get away at a nice mom's Airbnb, to the newly blended family of Matthew Davis and Greer Grammer. This film shows all kinds of people in all kinds of stages of life. I think it's very cool.

Give these two a watch. Get your double feature going. Then hit me up at @tastelesspod on social media. Let me know what other thrillers you're watching right now. And tell me if you, like me, would leave pie out and then die because of it.

Anna Elizabeth James | Strong Female Leads

Anna Elizabeth James (writer/director of Deadly Illusions) has revived the psychosexual thriller genre with Deadly Illusions clocking in at #1 on Netflix and she GRACEd me with her presence on the show! Our conversation covered everything I've ever cared about, including how she crafted a thriller with heart, the absolutism of movie critics, and obviously, the milk bath. Deadly Illusions is a FEELING, as is this episode.

Deadly Illusions is coming to all platforms June 1st, including my beloved physical media, but you can watch now on Netflix!

Follow Anna on Instagram | Follow Anna on Twitter | Follow Deadly Illusions on Instagram | Follow Deadly Illusions on Twitter

Heart's Desire: Black Swan vs Deadly Illusions

Two movies about a woman in a high pressure environment who is unsure of what is real and what is not, and must come to terms with her desires — it's Black Swan vs Deadly Illusions.

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Every episode of Tasteless, I take a critically acclaimed film and compare it to one that shares the same themes but didn't get the attention it deserves — and explain why that second movie is my pick. This week: two women in high-pressure environments who are unsure of what is real and what is not and must come to terms with their desires. It's Black Swan versus Deadly Illusions.

Black Swan

Nina is a talented but unstable ballerina on the verge of stardom. Pushed to the breaking point by her artistic director and a seductive rival, Nina's grip on reality slips, plunging her into a waking nightmare.

This movie came out in 2010, has an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. Natalie Portman won the Oscar for Best Actress. The film was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Directing, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing.

These were the Oscars where everyone turned on Anne Hathaway as she tried to save the sinking ship that was getting anything useful out of James Franco. How dare we turn on her. The Social Network beat Black Swan for Film Editing. Are you kidding me? Inception got Cinematography — fine, whatever, because buildings are caving in, but Black Swan was better. Directing and Picture were given to The King's Speech, which I didn't see, but I bet it was about a turd. I will not be looking further into it. Please do not inform me.

Black Swan deserves all the awards and recognition for being a truly compelling look at a woman forced to both repress and expose herself in equal turn for the acceptance of those around her. Natalie Portman does an amazing job. I love this movie. I saw it in theaters, I think twice, and it's stuck with me. I am offended that it only has an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Natalie trained for a year as a dancer to prepare for the role, paid for the training out of her own pocket until the film found investors. Darren Aronofsky attributed the film getting made at all to Portman's dedication and enthusiasm. I think you can tell when an actor has a true passion for a role, and that carries through here. Out of all the awards nominations the film received, Natalie Portman won every single Best Actress category — Oscars, Golden Globes, every single one she was nominated for, she won.

Her performance is one of the most incredible I've seen — the way she goes within herself, the vulnerability, the sadness. To contrast that with the woman who sang one of my favorite songs, the Natalie Rap. She has range. She's brilliant.

Natalie as Nina is desperate for the approval of Tomah — as she says, Tomah, spelled Thomas — played by Vincent Cassel. He heads up the ballet troupe and assigns the roles. While Natalie is a talented dancer, he believes she doesn't have the darkness or sensuality to play the Black Swan and therefore cannot play the multifaceted Swan Queen in their upcoming Swan Lake. She struggles to open herself up and be less regimented, and this isn't helped by Tomah's sexually aggressive nature. She has complicated feelings for him — a schoolgirl crush she refuses to acknowledge when pressed about it by Mila Kunis.

Mila Kunis is perfection in this film as well. There is an easiness to Mila as Lily that is something I absolutely covet. She was so perfect for this role. To get the viewer into the space Natalie inhabits — the envy, the interest. Mila is the kind of person where you just want to be in her orbit.

Although it is fully psycho when she goes into the bathroom Natalie is in, goes to pee, takes off her underwear and hands it to Natalie to hold. I would be distraught if that happened to me. But then when Mila goes to Natalie's house later to apologize — because she had really pushed Natalie's boundaries, talked to Tomah about her — I loved that. She recognizes that even though Natalie is really intense and not nice to her, she still hurt her and tries to make up for it.

She goes to her apartment, invites her out. Natalie takes her up on it. While they're out at a bar, Mila offers her drugs. And I too would take a strange pill for Mila Kunis. I think any one of us would. This is the only fun girls' night out Natalie has had maybe ever. So in her mind it becomes more than it is. She has the hallucination of going home and having sex with Mila Kunis.

Even the response when she finds out it was not real — she goes to Mila and is like, okay, last night can never happen again. And Mila's like, what happened last night? I went home with a dude. Oh my God, did you have a dream about me? And she's not even really mean about it. She's just kind of like, was I good? There's such an acceptance with her — she's not judgmental, she's just open. And it's this ease that Natalie can never achieve.

A lot of that is due to the way she was raised. Barbara Hershey plays Natalie's overbearing mom, and she's so frightening. Perhaps the scariest part of the film, besides the skin strip Natalie peels off her finger, which I still cannot look at no matter how many times I see the movie. There's a theory that the mother was possibly molesting her, and even if we don't take that as fact, the control her mother exerts is sickening. It's very Carrie — this perverted, twisted idea of love being used as a weapon to keep Natalie in line.

Although she wants her daughter to be a success, she encourages and allows for this odd regression. Constantly calling the receptionist at the theater to find out Natalie's whereabouts. And when Natalie gets the Swan Queen role, she says to her mom, he picked me, mommy, and it just makes my skin crawl. Then her mom gets this full sheet cake and Natalie's like, I'm trying to be ballerina-body, I can't eat a sheet cake. And Barbara Hershey goes to throw it away. And then it's like, no, I'm sorry, I didn't — I'm just so proud. It's this constant push of control.

This relationship is so stressful, so tense. Uncut Gems who? This is tension. You see why Natalie is living so much of her life internally and why her view of the world becomes distorted when this is how she was raised — to never feel safe, to always wonder when the other shoe was going to drop.

I was also thrilled to see Winona Ryder as a ballerina at the company who has passed the age where people want to see her perform. She's put out to pasture and accuses Natalie of sleeping with Tomah to take her job. Ksenia Solo, aka Kenzi from Lost Girl, appears as another ballerina. Sebastian Stan is one of the guys Natalie and Mila meet at the bar. I had totally forgotten that.

Here's one problem with this movie: Darren Aronofsky. I am not denying he's a genius in some of the ways we consider people geniuses. But a little piece of trivia from IMDB: Natalie Portman revealed that Aronofsky would subtly try to pit her and Mila Kunis against each other during filming, in an attempt to increase the on-screen tension. This included keeping the two actresses separated and sending each of them intimidating text messages about each other's performance that day. However, according to Kunis, this backfired because they were good friends before filming. Whenever they got wind the other was doing really well, they would respond in congratulatory support, not rivalry.

It's a job, Darren Aronofsky. Don't play mind games. These are excellent actors who can do the job without some nonsense you're trying to put in their head.

Also, IMDB has director trademarks. One for this movie was the film Perfect Blue — an overhead shot of Nina in the bathtub is an exact replica of a shot in the Japanese anime thriller. Years before, when making Requiem for a Dream, Aronofsky bought the remake rights to Perfect Blue just to use that one sequence. Black Swan itself contains numerous similarities to Perfect Blue, though Aronofsky has denied it was an influence. You already bought this movie to use in something else and now you're like, no, that movie has nothing to do with my work. Come on, dude.

Although the film was never marketed as such, Aronofsky has always maintained it was meant to be a psychological horror film. I would say yes — this is the kind of thriller that made me appreciate the genre and realize it can be layered and meaningful and truly frightening. Black Swan is one of my all-time favorite films.

Deadly Illusions

After a bestselling novelist suffering from writer's block hires a new nanny for her children, the line between fiction and reality starts to blur.

This came out in 2021, has a 13% on Rotten Tomatoes — but only eight official critics have reviewed it, so I don't think that's quite fair.

This is one of the timelier episodes of Tasteless. Deadly Illusions dropped last weekend as of this recording and Sam Hurley of Movie Reviews in 20Qs told me it existed and that it looked up my alley. I immediately pulled it up on IMDB and said, yes, it is. And yes, it was. What a film.

I have spoken before about this genre of thriller. Saying "erotic thriller" does always make me feel like a serial killer, but I don't know what else to call it. I would argue Black Swan could fall into the category as well. This was a type of thriller more prevalent in the eighties and nineties that peaked with Basic Instinct and had a late-nineties resurgence with ones aimed at a younger crowd — Cruel Intentions, Wild Things. It's this type of twisty thriller where there's a mystery and the best ones have women using their sexuality to get what they want — instead of it being something they're subjected to, they turn it on the oppressors.

Netflix has been circling this, wanting to bring back the fun twisty surprising psychological thriller with a little sex thrown in, and this is a perfect example.

As our star we have Kristin Davis. Charlotte was always my favorite on Sex and the City. Kristin Davis has shown again and again what a delight she is — between her very funny and supportive engagement with the Every Outfit on Sex and the City Instagram, which has this meme called Woke Charlotte where they correct problematic quotes from the show. Also, Kristin Davis is a big supporter of animals. She has dedicated herself to helping elephants through the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. I just love her.

In this movie she is my favorite kind of character: an author who wrote a bestselling series of sexy thriller novels, but has basically retired from that to be with her family because she feels writing those books have been some of the unhappiest times of her life. Unfortunately her husband Dermot Mulroney does some bad business, so she has to take an offer to write another book in the series to get them some money. And she switches to full writer mode. The cigars, the robes, the cozy sweaters.

Kristin Davis's whole vibe in this movie is so cool. At one point she has her boots up on her writing desk smoking her giant cigar and I could just watch that for eight hours like a video of a Yule log. I have a Reddit thread bookmarked right now to find out where one of her sweaters is from — someone on a knitting subreddit was like, does anyone have the pattern for the sweater? Someone replied, I have this exact sweater. Three people have replied asking where they bought it. This person has not replied. It's been seven days. Please come back, Reddit user, and tell us where you bought the sweater.

Let's talk Dermot Mulroney. Hunk from My Best Friend's Wedding gets his full butt out in this movie. I like parity in my actor nudity — I want a lady butt, I want a man butt. Have it all in there. His relationship with Kristin is overall very refreshing. She says to him, what do you think about women who get plastic surgery? He goes, like fake boobs? And he kind of looks like, no, I don't want you to get fake boobs. She goes, maybe something else? He says, like a fake butt? And he mulls it over. They're kind of laughing. And he says, the hottest thing about you is you're brilliant and you're a wonderful mom to our kids.

Other than Dermot's betrayal with finances, this couple clearly likes each other and is into each other. They are going at it for half the movie. He is so attracted to her. They have such love for each other, such chemistry. It's not the usual — the wife is so busy, she doesn't pay enough attention, or the husband is stepping out with his secretary. No, they're equal partners.

In comes the nanny, with one big braid and different-colored bows and a beach cruiser bike and a lot of white-sock, white-sneaker combos. It is Greer Grammer. She seems like the perfect nanny — she loves reading and kids, is trying to make money for college, immediately has palpable sexual tension with Kristin Davis. All things that are great in an employee.

Greer spoon-feeds Kristin about 18 different foods and I love every moment of it. Honey, chili — yes, there's some sexy chili spoon-feeding. Who doesn't want that? And Greer plays Grace and she just feels so at home with this family. Kristin Davis is a great employer — she buys her bras, she hangs out with her. It seems like a really nice time at that house.

There's something about her that intrigues Kristin. We see Kristin talking to her friend, played by Shanola Hampton of Shameless — who is also a producer on this movie, which I have a lot of questions about. The only flaw in this movie is that there was not more of her. Kristin plays the role of slightly lascivious employer with such gusto. She straight up tells Shanola what's up. She doesn't hide it. She's like, I am very into my nanny. There isn't any shame surrounding it. Shanola asks, are you even into girls? Kristin goes, no, I just like that she'll do whatever I want. And Shanola is like, okay, well, keep working on your book.

So many of these types of thrillers rely on the husband and wife hating each other and lying to each other. That's not what happens here. Obviously Kristin doesn't tell her husband she's very attracted to the nanny, but she's also not secretive. I mean, yeah, they stop making out when the kids come in, but that's just being polite.

There are about 18 twists in this movie, some of which we will get into. But really you just need to watch it — it's on Netflix. And all you nitpickers who are like, what's the timeline of this movie? — shut your faces! If you want a timeline so bad, watch Memento, you turds.

This movie has one of the best visual gags I've seen in ages. There's an incident I'm not going to spoil, but you see Kristin look at the cover of what is very clearly a People magazine — same font and everything — but instead of People it says Persons, in the People font. I was really delighted by that.

Shared Themes

These films explore reality and our perception of it — how fantasy and nightmare can become more tangible and sometimes more desirable than the real world. Natalie and Kristin feel they can't trust their own memory of what has happened, because the world around them has a different view of it altogether.

Natalie in Black Swan is so overwhelmed by her drive to be the best. She is already an anxious person, so to be in a field where that's the crux of it, where there is such competition and it's so cutthroat — it's not good for her. It's not a supportive environment; it's one of pain and pushing yourself to the limit. Natalie's greatest enemy and roadblock is herself. She puts so much pressure on herself that every comment from someone else is a shot to her heart.

She sees her face plastered onto people passing her. She fights a vision of herself. She stabs herself with some glass. She's in a constant war with who she is, but projects it onto her battle with Mila Kunis — thinking this other dancer is her enemy instead of her own insecurities. Natalie is so fragile that each vision of betrayal, of being wronged, of death and destruction, pushes her closer to the edge. She doesn't know what is real and is constantly frightened, unsure of other people's motives. She sees feathers growing in on her back and tries desperately to pluck them out. She sees entire strips of her skin being torn away.

In Deadly Illusions, Kristin becomes lost in the world of her book. She writes tantalizing stories with twists and seduction and killers, and she finds herself living inside one when her nanny is a little too eager to please. She has visions of her husband and the nanny having sex on the kitchen counter, but then both deny it and Kristin is made to feel insane. She even accuses Shanola of having an eye on her husband. Shanola's like, we will talk later, you're being ridiculous because I danced with your weird husband.

Fantasy can be a place of escape and comfort as much as it can be intrusive and frightening. Natalie and Kristin experience both sides. Natalie finally finds release when she fantasizes about bringing Mila home — Mila represents a form of freedom and easiness that Natalie covets but can never quite achieve. Through Kristin's fantasies, she can take the weight of the world off her shoulders. She's adored and doted on by the young nanny who takes care of her as well as the children.

Black Swan and Deadly Illusions explore desire and sexuality in a way that is female-focused without centering their experience on gaining a man's approval. There's freedom and escape within these sexual relationships for each woman.

In Black Swan, Natalie is very closed off — in a state of arrested development, still living with her mom, focusing only on work and being the best. There's no easiness to her. It's why Tomah doesn't believe she can embody the Black Swan, but only the more virginal White Swan. It's clear Tomah has no problem wielding sexuality as a weapon — aggressively kissing Natalie, being thrilled by her biting him. He tells Natalie to go home and touch herself and she takes this assignment seriously, even though it's very inappropriate from her employer. But because she continues to be so afraid of being out of control, she can't turn off her brain. And when she finally does, her mom is there, just sleeping in the corner of her room. She doesn't have a lock on her door — she has a wooden dowel to keep her mom out.

It's not until her night out with Mila — drinking and doing drugs and having fun and not worrying about her career — that within her fantasy of sex with Mila, she's able to let go. She fights her mom, stands up for herself, takes what she wants.

There's an IMDB trivia fact I want to talk about here. An online rumor broke out shortly after the film's release claiming Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis took shots of tequila before shooting their sex scene and were drunk on screen. Kunis denied this, saying, I don't think we could have done that scene if we were intoxicated. There's something interesting and immensely frustrating here because we hear it a lot. When women have to kiss or have sex scenes, some rumor always comes out that they got drunk. We don't think that about man-on-woman sex scenes. There's something we see as other when it's two people of the same sex versus a heterosexual love scene.

Natalie wants the approval of Tomah, yes, but she wants to be Mila. She wants to feel that freedom. And that's the kind of person she can open herself up to.

In Deadly Illusions, Kristin Davis and Dermot Mulroney have so much chemistry. So Kristin can't figure out why she is so drawn to her nanny. But she comments a couple different times how intoxicating it is that she feels the nanny would clearly do anything for her.

In a life where she's so out of control in some ways — where her husband has lost their savings without her knowledge, where her book publishers constantly push for her to write what they want instead of what she feels is correct — in this relationship with the nanny, she has control. She's in charge. That power is potent and hard to ignore. With her husband, Kristin is taking care of him. With the nanny, she is being taken care of.

The nanny at one point — Kristin's in the bath — brings in rose petals and pours milk in the bath. Which I guess is okay? It seems bad. Maybe it's cream. Is that better or worse than milk? Are those the same thing? Either way, the dynamic is not something she has experienced as this high-profile author, as a mother to twins, as someone constantly holding things together. She hasn't just had someone dote on her like this.

Dermot has encouraged her to get help, to hire a nanny. He doesn't think any less of her for wanting that help as she focuses on work. But there is something so different and so important for Kristin in the nanny saying to her, let me make you happy. All I want to do is make you happy. There's no obligation there. Nothing is expected of her. Kristin and Dermot are such equal partners in so many ways, but a lot of the labor of fixing things falls on Kristin. So there's such a different type of freedom with the nanny.

Later in the kitchen when Kristin is trying to talk about her tenth anniversary with Dermot, the nanny is all up on her trying to get a piece of her — you deserve this. Kristin can just take and take without giving anything back. There's no emotional labor. She took her bra shopping and just got one little grope in and the nanny just went about business as usual. This nanny has made it so easy, has just offered herself up to Kristin. Whereas in her relationship with Dermot, Kristin feels like she has to pick up the pieces when he crashes and burns their life — and this is not the first time he has done this.

Neither relationship in both films is necessarily a measure of attraction. Yes, obviously Mila Kunis and Greer Grammer are good-looking. But it's more what they represent. In Black Swan, Mila is easy, carefree, confident, without guile. She doesn't play the same games. She takes what she wants. In Deadly Illusions, Greer is simple, innocent, pliable, and she looks at Kristin with such adoration.

We also see the other side — we see Greer with Dermot where she is aggressive, she bosses him around, because he doesn't get that from Kristin. She brings whatever the other person needs. One of the most strangely intimate moments is when Kristin takes off her bathing suit to hop in the pool and then gestures for the nanny to put it on. Which she does. The nanny puts on someone else's wet bathing suit, which — okay. But Kristin sees herself in the nanny. You see this when she picks out the bras and talks about youth being wasted on the young, wishing she had more confidence in her body when she was Greer's age. And in Black Swan, Natalie Portman sees her own face on Mila Kunis while they're having sex. They are both working through their relationship to themselves in a way that would not be possible with a man.

What Deadly Illusions Does Better

Natalie in Black Swan is a very specific character — someone so stilted in so many ways that despite her immense talents, it's as though all her regular social and emotional IQ have been converted to regimented physicality, not even general comfort in her body. Whereas Kristin in Deadly Illusions is more balanced — an adult struggling with the weight placed on her shoulders as a mother, a wife, the breadwinner. Natalie never truly grows into a full-fledged person, while Kristin has no choice but to explore who she can be in relation to what has happened to her.

In Black Swan, Natalie is not living a regular life. She's raised by an overbearing mother who infantilizes her even as she berates her, making Natalie unable to take care of herself and yet mocking her for that same inability. Each time Natalie starts to break out of the shell — going out with Mila, drinking, staying up late — this step forward is met with two steps back. She's apologetic the next morning, distraught over what she believes has happened.

There's a catharsis in Natalie's death at the end — the acknowledgment that the person she stabbed is in fact herself. She dies in this truly perfect moment. But there's no moving forward for Natalie. There's no true experienced growth. She isn't able to integrate the two sides of herself. Instead, as she starts to achieve that integration, that is how she dies. She cannot live with both sides of herself.

In Deadly Illusions, Kristin makes her choices and stands by them. She's not regretful, simply confused over the turn things take when she discovers Greer's true face. I appreciate that she stays in the nanny's life at the end — because obviously things go down with the nanny. It's called Deadly Illusions. In the promo pictures, the nanny is seductively whispering in her ear. Obviously bad stuff goes down. But despite what the nanny does to her family, she feels a connection and a fondness for this girl who has been treated with such cruelty by her own parental figures.

Kristin doesn't feel shame. She simply adjusts her perspective when presented with the rest of the facts about who this woman is. She doesn't begrudge Dermot for being seduced by the nanny as well — she was too. And despite the ambiguous ending, I do believe Kristin has achieved some sort of happiness and growth. We see she has finished her book, a woman at the office is reading it intently, and Kristin has channeled what has happened to her into that work of art for others to enjoy. Instead of penning the last pages and falling to her swan-like death, she sets to work supporting the people in her life and providing forgiveness to the young girl whose actions were not quite her own.

Forgiveness is something Natalie never is able to give herself. She acknowledges the two sides of who she is, but I don't think she ever fully loves and accepts the pieces of herself that have kept her safe amidst her mental turmoil. Kristin's forgiveness of Greer — as well as of herself — was a really interesting element that allowed the characters to not be black and white.

Natalie ends Black Swan proud of her accomplishment — performing the Black Swan serves as a culmination of her work. All the time she put into this, the way she ruined her body and her mind. There's this continued thing in movies where people can't have balance. Liz Lemon's whole bit on 30 Rock about wanting women to be able to have it all, but they can't. I get that it takes 10,000 hours to become a master of something, and it's admirable to have such dedication. But it's also inhuman. We see Natalie as this otherworldly waif — this ballerina lacking humanity in a lot of ways, all the most timid, scared pieces. Every aspect of her life is so controlled that I don't ever feel I know who she is. Is she anyone? Is she just this combination of skill and fear?

In Deadly Illusions, Kristin becomes involved in writing again because of necessity. She has to support her family, they need money. She's an incredible writer whose books have done very well and clearly gotten her this nice house with a lot of very nice outdoor spaces. But I like seeing someone whose interest isn't at the expense of everything else. You can be passionate about something, skilled at something, while balancing other things. Yeah, she's writing her book by hand with a fountain pen onto various sheets of paper, and someone's going to have to type that up later. But she's not worried about it. She's going to write some pages and then go lay by the pool topless. She's got a life to lead.

So many movies about being the best are just — this is it, this is all you can do. Black Swan, Whiplash, I, Tonya. These people have no life skills and are weirdos because all they can do is this one thing. I like the way Kristin's skill — this way she's able to tap into a book — is also her downfall in that she dives too deep, becomes too involved, and it changes how she reacts to things as she gets sucked into the book. But she can turn that off. She chooses to dive back into this darkness for the good of her family. There's something about that choice I find really satisfying — especially because she lives with the results and doesn't shame herself for what has happened.

I hope you will watch Deadly Illusions on Netflix so we can talk about it. Hit me up at @tastelesspod. Tell me which of Kristin Davis's sweater-plus-cigar combos was your favorite. If you know where any of those sweaters are from and can tell me before the people on Reddit, please do.