Ms. 45 (1981) hits select theaters around the country December 13th. You can see the full release schedule from Drafthouse Films here.
I’ve actually seen a fair amount of director Abel Ferrara’s films, while not entirely grasping what it seems like he is all about. In the ’70s and ’80s, it would be safe to say he was a bit of a grind house auteur with The Driller Killer and today’s film, Ms. 45. He hit his defining stride in the ’90s with very “New York” art crime thrillers like Bad Lieutenant and King Of New York. I haven’t seen any of his more recent films but he seems to have delved more into weird-looking dramas with Willem Dafoe in them. I should probably check some of those out.
Either way, I’m grateful to Drafthouse Films for resurrecting Ms. 45, which I’m fairly comfortable calling the best of Ferrara’s films that I have seen. I’m predisposed to digging revenge films, so I’m the right audience for this. But then again, I’m also predisposed to loving cop films, and his Bad Lieutenant didn’t quite click for me. Maybe it was all the sobbing masturbation? Nah, couldn’t have been that. And Driller Killer hasn’t stuck in my mind very much, but it struck me as distinctly more pedestrian and sloppy than the bold and potent Ms. 45.
While Ms. 45 is very much a rape/revenge film, I’m not planning to get in depth on that sub-genre. To sketch my thoughts: Rape is always wrong. Depiction isn’t always endorsement. And some rape/revenge films cross the line into exploitative misogyny while some don’t. My opinion is that Ms. 45 doesn’t cross that line, but I’d be willing to entertain a discussion with anyone who thinks differently. These types of films can get raw, and discussion about them should always be on the table.
This film wallows in exploitation tropes and simultaneously rises above them in shocking ways. We’re introduced to Thana (Zoe Lund) as she parts company with her partying friends to head home after a long day in New York’s garment district. I can’t actually remember at what point I realized Thana is mute, but it was deftly revealed to us through showing and not telling, which is much appreciated. Her muteness is a classic example of a thriller trope that is used to wonderful effect in Ms. 45. Thana’s muteness offers moments of tension, vulnerability, comedy, and cold-bloodedness as the film plays out.
Wasting no time whatsoever, Ms. 45 gets the obligatory revenge film inciting incident out of the way quickly, and without dipping into tastelessness. The sequence is surprising with its originality and tension, even as it repulses. This very scene will have consequences that echo throughout the movie, giving Thana her first taste of inflicting violence.
I found Lund’s Thana to be fascinating. Lund is able to convey a fully fleshed out character in spite of that character’s muteness and the trappings of a revenge narrative. Lund was a model and actress who apparently died young, from complications of her heroine usage. Relatively unrelated to the film itself, “the internet” tells me she was surprisingly a noted public PROPONENT of heroine use. Pretty wild, as most heroine users probably wouldn’t recommend it to others these days. And it doesn’t appear to have worked out well for her, so, you know, easy on the H, kids. I bring these things up just to note that Lund, and Ferrara’s handling of her character Thana, were so compelling and foreign to me that I went out of my way to learn more about who this woman was and how she came to star in this “forgotten” gem.
Another problem with the rape/revenge sub-genre, aside from the aforementioned, is the eventuality of it all. How many times can we watch someone be abused, take their power back through hollow violence, and usually either 1) get themselves killed, or, 2) erase crime, vigilante style. How many different outcomes can there possibly be? Well, it turns out that Ms. 45 does take surprising turns that offer ambiguous moral implications.
The film isn’t perfect. There is an intentionally nosey and overbearing land lady with a yappy dog who I shot as many icy glances at as Thana did. The character is exactly what she was intended to be, but I found her to be cartoonish in the midst of otherwise gritty reality and that jarred me.
And any critic worth their salt needs to be able to get past issues like extremely low budgets being evident, or fake blood looking like dried nail polish. BUT, those things, while not diminishing the overall thematic power of the film or the entertainment value even, are still distracting at the very least, and thrust the film’s low budget right in your face.
I want to dive briefly into spoilers in the next paragraph in order to discuss the jaw dropping ending to the film, which renders it not only shocking, but sagely prescient as well. Ms. 45 is a rape/revenge thriller, yes. And if you are an exploitation fan then you may think you know what you are going to get when you see it. I’d be surprised if you are correct in that assumption. Ms. 45 surprises at evey turn, has a few things to say to us today, and also manages to be savagely funny and entertaining as well. I recommend seeking out the newly remastered release of the film from Drafthouse!
SPOILERS
I had no idea how this film was going to end, and was fascinated to realize that it morphs from a revenge fantasy to a bizarrely relevant “mass shooter incident” film, culminating in a shocking rampage with a totally unhinged Thana (who seemingly broke as a functioning human) as she increasingly escalates in her bloodlust against men. This isn’t a vigilante film so much as it is a tale of addiction and loss of control. Thana’s murder spree against men feels empowering to her at first, but Ferrara is really showing us one woman’s true undoing through her violence. Thana kills men who attack her or seek to victimize women, but she isn’t portrayed as an avenging angel, rather an addict who is always chasing that first high and settles for worse and worse excuses all the time until rock bottom smacks them in the face. Thana’s is a tragic tale resulting in a mass shooting only too familiar, but still raw and powerful for today’s audiences.
And I’m Out.