Only reason to watch this film is the performance of Elizabeth Moss

Let's see this movie received the incredibly low Netflix rating of only 1 star - which to me, based on the usual accuracy of Netflix reviewers - meant it was most likely worth watching. Wrong. There's only one reason to watch the dreary and pretentious 2015 ensemble film Queen of Earth, and that's to see in close-up Elizabeth (Peggy) Moss's performance as a deeply disturbed young woman. From the powerful first scene in which she appears in extreme close-up as a complete wreck, receiving the word from her narcissist, philandering boyfriend that their relationship is over, you know she's going to dominate this movie - and she does. Would that there were anything else to recommend. But in fact this movie, which covers the span of a week during with Moss visits the summer home of her best friend ostensibly to get away from her sorrows, has a plot that goes nowhere. Moss is no better (or worse) off at the end of the film than she was at the outset. It's just an opportunity to see her go through a thousand shades of misery and nervous breakdown - fighting with her friend and her friend's boyfriend, making a scene at a party, looking nasty and miserable during any attempt to have some fun, engaging in odd eating and hording habits, and generally begin sullen and disturbed. There are hints, never fully fleshed out, about her devotion to her late father, a well-known artist, and to a financial scandal that led to his suicide. In fact, the movie builds up many ominous themes and mood - aided by an eerie and effective original score - but all pretty much to no avail. Compare this, say, to a Bergman ensemble film such as Through a Glass Darkly or Persona, each about the demise of a mentally ill young woman, and you'll see the difference between character development and character exploitation. Moss is really talented, so let's hope she gets a good role in film someday, somehow.