bad behaviour movie reviews

an image, when javascript is unavailable

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘bad behaviour’ review: jennifer connelly and ben whishaw seek enlightenment in alice englert’s savvy comedy-drama.

Set at a spiritual retreat, an accomplished first feature combines cultural satire with a mother-daughter story.

By Caryn James

Caryn James

Share on Facebook
Share to Flipboard
Send an Email
Show additional share options
Share on LinkedIn
Share on Pinterest
Share on Reddit
Share on Tumblr
Share on Whats App
Print the Article
Post a Comment

The scenes of Lucy and Elon at the retreat are intercut with those of her daughter, Dylan (Englert), a stuntwoman working on set in New Zealand, first seen being fake-choked in the woods by an actor she’s becoming romantically involved with. The cinematographer Matt Henley captures the wide-shot rural beauty of both the retreat and the movie set. (The entire film was made in New Zealand.)

She is especially, and understandably, annoyed when a new arrival shows up, a young model named Beverly (Dasha Nekrasova) carrying a Louis Vuitton bag, all poses and narcissism. Her first move is to ask Lucy to take her photograph. When Elon asks the group to “share a shame” — one of the screenplay’s withering satiric touches — Beverly says she’s afraid that her youth will fade. “It will,” Elon says, not too helpfully. He later screams at Lucy “ Don’t hope!” following it up more calmly with “Be.” Maybe he’s just bad as a guru. Whishaw makes the character enigmatic until he isn’t.

Dylan’s scenes provide broader comic relief, as she practices tumbling down the stairs, lunges at her maybe-boyfriend with a lance, and puts ice packs on her muscles in her hotel room at night. (Campion has a very brief cameo as a doctor treating Dylan’s bruises.) Her plot and Lucy’s begin to merge late in the story, with an exercise in which Elon asks the group to role-play as mothers and babies. The film takes a turn, fulfilling the very bad behavior of the title. Lucy may have had a breakthrough, or arrived at her breaking point, or maybe was more broken than we saw all along.

The film’s press notes say, “Although Bad Behaviour is not specifically about Alice Englert’s relationship with her own mother, the film was inspired by the numerous spiritual retreats she’s attended over the years alongside her mother.” That explanation is both a way of emphasizing that the story is a fiction, and a tactful recognition that the film will inevitably land in the shadow of Campion’s brilliant career. Best not to be too concerned with real-life parallels though. This sparkling, imaginative little film works on its own terms.

Full credits

Thr newsletters.

More from The Hollywood Reporter

‘art spiegelman: disaster is my muse’ review: the ‘maus’ author tells his story again in an engaging but too-familiar new doc, jennifer love hewitt recalls the media knowing about her mother’s passing before she did, poland’s camerimage festival kicks off controversy-charged 32nd edition, cory michael smith had a very unusual method to become chevy chase on ‘saturday night’, box office: dwayne johnson-chris evans’ christmas pic ‘red one’ battling for $30m opening, the ‘sideways’ revolution: how a single joke upended the wine world.

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy . We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

‘Bad Behaviour’ Review: Jennifer Connelly Goes Wild in Alice Englert’s Thrilling, Darkly Funny Debut

Kate erbland, editorial director.

Share on Facebook
Share to Flipboard
Share on LinkedIn
Show more sharing options
Submit to Reddit
Post to Tumblr
Print This Page
Share on WhatsApp

Lucy is looking for enlightenment. Dylan wants to prove her strength. And in Alice Englert ‘s thrilling and darkly funny feature debut “ Bad Behaviour ,” both mother and daughter will find their way there. Well, eventually.

First off, we’ll dispatch with the sadly necessary disclaimer: Englert is, as the Internet would love for us all to repeatedly yell about for mostly boring ends, a “nepo baby.” The daughter of Oscar-winning filmmaker Jane Campion and fellow director Colin Englert (and, hell, let’s do the full family tree: also the granddaughter of actress Edith Campion and theater director Richard Campion), Englert has long dedicated herself to her own artistic career. She’s an actress , writer, singer, and songwriter, and with “Bad Behaviour,” she ascends to feature filmmaker status (she’s got two short films under her belt already).

Perhaps it’s the talent in her genes, perhaps it’s her unique life experience, perhaps some combo of that and more, but Englert is already a formidable, fully formed filmmaker. Dumb labels be damned: She’s the real deal, and “Bad Behaviour” is proof positive of that.

Englert, who also wrote the film’s script, is all too happy to wink at her background. Jennifer Connelly stars as a former child star (she mentions a “warrior princess” role from her teens that forever changed her, both in good ways and very bad) who is grappling with being out of the limelight. Englert herself co-stars as her daughter (“nepo baby”?!?), who is attempting her own Hollywood career as a stunt performer. Campion herself turns up in a cheeky cameo. But despite these nods to Englert’s own upbringing, “Bad Behaviour” is wholly its own original beast.

We pick up with Lucy (Connelly) as she’s on her way to a silent retreat with her guru Elon Bello (a very funny Ben Whishaw), who she listens to religiously on tape. Elon doesn’t seem particularly enlightened, but Lucy is into his schtick enough to fork out money and time to spend a week or so at his latest event, filled with similarly lost souls who think that going wordless for a while might help, well, whatever. Before she goes dark for an indeterminate period, however, she needs to catch up with her only daughter, Dylan (Englert), who is half a world away, working on a truly inane-looking fantasy film in New Zealand. (The country plays itself and also stands in for the Pacific Northwest, where Lucy lives, a production choice that works well.)

The women aren’t particularly simpatico, but they do share a bent toward exhibiting what Englert’s cheeky title hints at: behaving badly, even if they are, at their core, good people. Lucy’s attempts at righting herself zing between the hilarious and the profane as she tries to embrace whatever cuckoo-crap Elon slings at his followers (that it’s Elon who breaks the silent part of the silent retreat is just one of many amusing pops Englert adds at opportune times). Lucy’s fraught relationship with pseudo-enlightenment is thrown for a loop by the late arrival of a model/DJ (the also very funny Dasha Nekrasova), who takes everything even less seriously and yet is instantly beloved by all. Great!

Meanwhile, Dylan is on the other side of the world trying to prove her mettle as a rising stunt performer (internal checklist: scoff at Mom, proclaim she can’t feel pain, ask for harder hits, flirt with a fuccboi, repeat). But Dylan is indeed her mother’s daughter, and she too is prone to being bad, even when she thinks she’s actually doing good.

All of this is funny, flinty, and intriguing enough before Englert throws in a wild twist — and by “wild,” we mean good, well-earned, extremely shocking, and a solid catalyst for what comes next that pushes both women into new spaces. (Snappy editing from Simon Price assists in the twist and more.) That means reuniting, and Englert mostly avoids cliche when finally throwing these two toxic strivers together, with Connelly and Englert, already so good apart, doing even better work when they’re finally sharing the screen.

Englert’s cracking wit and ability to find humor and heart in all sorts of situations translate to her own performance, which is sneakily vulnerable. Even as Lucy grows more complicated (the role is a full meal for Connelly, who also produced the film), Dylan remains a ballast for her, maybe the only thing she truly loves. But how can someone as flawed as Lucy fully express that? And how can someone as bottled up as Dylan accept it?

Those questions linger throughout “Bad Behaviour,” heady topics Englert approaches with consistent laughs and deeper explorations. While the final moments may prove more inscrutable than everything that came before, they at least point to Englert’s force of vision and her intent on carrying it out. Maybe that’s something you’re born with, or maybe it’s just something you work for. However she gets there, Englert has arrived.

“Bad Behaviour” premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. It is currently seeking distribution.