Me You Madness
It is rare for anyone to know and understand themselves as completely as Catherine Black, manager of the Obsidian hedge fund, a self-described “materialistic, narcissistic, self-absorbed misanthrope,” and every word of it is true, a predator who is precise in every action, has little tolerance for others and who has pushed herself to the top by eliminating the competition.
Into her Malibu home comes petty thief and conman Tyler Jones, ostensibly following up an advert for a house share and immediately dazzled by Catherine’s conspicuous and unashamed wealth, not to mention the lady herself, invited to stay for drinks, dinner and the private afterparty with Catherine and her close friend Yu Yan.
What Tyler thinks he is doing is casing the joint prior to making good with the more portable items of her property; what he is actually doing is playing a role in Catherine’s latest game of murder and revenge, first complicated when she realises she actually likes him, and then further when he steals her car which has the body of her previous victim still in the trunk, awaiting disposal.
Written, directed and starring Louise Linton as glamorous serial killer Catherine, Me You Madness is a satire on the romantic comedy genre which screams “vanity project” as it runs for safety but which somehow manages for the most part to be viciously entertaining as the fly Catherine has invited into her parlour attempts to charm the spider into not eating him while they dance around each other armed with wit and whatever household items can be used as weapons.
Catherine’s sudden development of a conscience one of the more unbelievable twists of the plot given what has gone before, Me You Madness will not be to everyone’s taste, a hymn to hubris and excess where Catherine’s progression through thirty outfits becomes a running joke but which would benefit from having at least one superfluous verse excised, and that it works at all is largely down to Westwick’s charm and rapport with Linton and the retro soundtrack.
Conscious of the legacy from which it borrows, with specific reference to American Psycho, like that film it repurposes classic hits, from Flashdance, Ferris Bueller, Pretty Woman and, particularly apt as Catherine’s freezer contains numerous severed limbs, Footloose, but built almost entirely around two characters Me You Madness needs to be both sharper and faster and instead Linton repeats herself, expecting points for how clever she is when it would be wiser to deliver the killer blow.
Me You Madness is available on digital download from Monday 19th April
