Joy (Max Eigenmann) is well aware of the fact that she has to suffer in order to keep her head above water as an undocumented migrant in the UK. Luckily for her, there are plenty of upper-middle class families happy to do some cash-in-hand deals for cleaning service in order to avoid taxes or supplemental agency fees. What appeals to the manipulative and domineering Katherine (Leanne Best) is the ability to make up the rules as she goes along. With a pay packet that’s a little higher than the norm, Joy gladly accepts Katherine’s sometimes-eccentric requests for tasks that are a little bit more involved than dusting, hoovering and cooking.
There are plenty of films which adopt the vantage of the cleaner or the oppressed home help and show how they’re able to get one up on their snooty masters, but Paris Zarcilla’s nifty film is a little different. This opts instead to rake up the graves of the ghosts of yonder and explore a wider and, in most cases, more violent history of exploitation that’s a hangover of Britain’s colonial days.
One thing that makes Joy’s life so difficult is that she has a young daughter named Grace (Jaeden Paige Boadilla) whom she smuggles into jobs and is only allowed into the open once the boss has left the house. It’s an intriguing set-up which comes to a surprising head, and while some of the twists are a little contrived, the film as a whole works as a fierce admonishment of western nostalgia for its colonial past.
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ANTICIPATION.
A horror movie about oppressed domestic help. Hasn’t this been done? 3
ENJOYMENT.
Not like this. Paris Zarcilla’s film combines righteous anger with well-executed chills. 4
IN RETROSPECT.
The final act doesn’t quite hold together, but the overall intent is more than effective. 3
Directed by
Paris Zarcilla
Starring
Max Eigenmann, Jaeden Paige Boadilla, Leanne Best
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