Luckiest Girl Alive (2022)

Luckiest Girl Alive grabs you with the kind of slick, high-achieving New York sheen that slowly cracks to reveal something rawer and more unsettling underneath, and that contrast is exactly what makes it so watchable. Mila Kunis delivers a fierce, nuanced performance that keeps Ani both magnetic and complicated, pulling you into her carefully curated world even as it starts to tremble. The film moves with a propulsive, tense energy—part mystery, part psychological thriller—while staying grounded in the messy, human aftermath of trauma rather than turning it into mere plot fuel. It’s not a light watch, and the subject matter can hit close to home, but if you want a compelling, relatable story about what it costs to survive and to keep living, it’s worth the time.

Luckiest Girl Alive wants to be a slick, modern psychological thriller about image, ambition, and buried trauma, and you can feel it reaching for something sharp and cathartic. The problem is it often handles extremely sensitive material with a heavy hand, and what should feel incisive can come off as exploitative or even tasteless, depending on your tolerance for shocky storytelling. The pacing drags and the “mystery” isn’t as suspenseful as it thinks it is, leaving the whole thing feeling a bit hollow rather than haunting. If you’re looking for a nuanced, thoughtful take on trauma or a genuinely tense thriller, this may disappoint, though Mila Kunis’ committed performance and the polished NYC veneer might still keep you watching.