Role: The Duchess
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Director: Alice Waddington
Written by: Brian DeLeeuw, Nacho Vigalondo, Alice Waddington
Running time: 1h 35min
Release Date: 26 January 2019 (United States)

Summary

In an undetermined future, society has divided in two types: upper-class or “superiors”, and the rest of the world, mid and lower-class, named “inferiors”. Uma is a superior teen girl who reluctant to marry with another superior named Son to be fall in love of an inferior named Markus, her mother sends her to Paradise Hills, a school for young ladies to reform rebel girls located in a remote island in the middle of the ocean. Waking up in Paradise not knowing how she arrived there, in the island she meets another students of the school: Amarna, a world pop star who was sent after she decided sing her own songs against the will of her parents and the music company that produces her albums; Chloe, an over-weight girl which parents want to turn her in a perfect woman, thin and complaint; and Yu, an inferior that after the loss of her parents was sent with her superiors aunt and uncle, who wants to make perfect and superior as them. At the same time that Uma meets the eccentric and out-of-the-reality The Duchess, Paradise Hills’ headmaster, who tries to convince for changing of idea about marry Son as her mother wants, Uma starts to suspect a hidden purpose behind of the luxury of the facility, its elegant staging and the daily sessions of make-up, hairdressing, good manners, holographic projections and therapy to make them perfects. While Amarna and she plots a plan to escape, Uma shocks when Markus appears suddenly as part of the Paradise Hills’ staff, for disgust of an Amarna who had started to feel attracted to Uma. Alerted by Amarna about the milk they drink as part of their dinner, Uma manages to avoid drinking and investigates Paradise Hills at night for her own risk, discovering the terrible truth: all the island is a giant control room to study the students’ behavior and appearance in order to be replicated by inferior girls hired to replace them when they “back” to the world after the original is killed. With time running against her, Uma and the rest of the girls must find a way to survive before they are the next to be replaced.

Production & Release

– In November 2017, Emma Roberts and Danielle Macdonald joined the cast of the film, with Alice Waddington directing from a screenplay by Nacho Vigalondo and Brian DeLeeuw, with Adrián Guerra and Núria Valls producing under their Nostromo Pictures banner. In March 2018, Eiza González joined the cast of the film. In April 2018, Milla Jovovich, Jeremy Irvine, and Awkwafina joined the cast of the film.
– Principal photography began in April 2018. Filming took place in the Spanish municipality of Gáldar, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, as well as in Barcelona.
– Paradise Hills had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on 26 January 2019. Shortly after, Samuel Goldwyn Films acquired distribution rights to the film. It was released in Spain on 11 October 2019, by Alfa Pictures. In the United States, it was released on 25 October 2019, followed by video on demand on 1 November 2019.

Critical Response

It holds a 63% rating and an average score of 6.15/10 on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on 58 reviews. The site’s consensus reads: “Its ambitious reach occasionally exceeds its grasp, but Paradise Hills offers fans of thoughtful sci-fi a visually distinctive treat with timely themes”. Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, “Words can’t do justice to the truly lavish sets and costumes on display here which are so dazzling, intricate and bizarre they serve as a useful distraction from the awkward dialogue and plot holes.” Louisa Moore, writing for Screen Zealots, similarly stated, “Sometimes a film can be a mess story-wise but is so well made and has something so interesting to say that it would be a crime not to applaud the effort.”. Carlos Aguilar of The Wrap wrote, “Challenging the narrative frameworks, the film turns obsolete archetypes into individuals with agency. […] Princesses don’t need a knight to escape their prisons; they can blow them up themselves” but finds the conclusion “contrived” writing of it, “It’s a well-intentioned effort to imbue the fanciful tale with more socio-politically relevant drama, but it lacks impact because it must compete with a multitude of more concrete musings.”

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