Movie · 1995 · Drama, Comedy, Crime · 1h 46m · R · English
Curator score: 7.0/10 (171.2K ratings)
All she wanted was a little attention.
Overview
Suzanne Stone wants to be a world-famous news anchor and she is willing to do anything to get what she wants. What she lacks in intelligence, she makes up for in cold determination and diabolical wiles. As she pursues her goal with relentless focus, she is forced to destroy anything and anyone that may stand in her way, regardless of the ultimate cost or means necessary.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.0/10
IMDb: 6.8/10
Letterboxd: 3.65/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
Metacritic: 86
TMDB: 6.6/10
Director
Gus Van Sant
Production
Columbia Pictures, The Rank Organisation, Laura Ziskin Productions
Cast
Nicole Kidman, Matt Dillon, Joaquin Phoenix, Casey Affleck, Illeana Douglas, Alison Folland, Dan Hedaya, Wayne Knight, Kurtwood Smith, Holland Taylor, Susan Traylor, Maria Tucci, Tim Hopper, Michael Rispoli, Buck Henry, Gerry Quigley, Tom Forrester, Alan Edward Lewis, Nadine MacKinnon, Conrad Coates
Where to watch
Netflix, Philo, Netflix Standard with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, darkly funny satire of ambition, media vanity, and self-mythologizing, powered by a fearless Nicole Kidman performance. It’s both entertaining and nasty in the best way, with a tone that keeps shifting between deadpan comedy and true-crime dread.
Best for
Fans of dark comedies with a vicious edge
Viewers interested in media satire and ambition stories
People who like unreliable, manipulative antiheroes
Audiences drawn to 1990s indie crime dramas
Skip if
You want a straightforward thriller with clean moral lines
You dislike abrasive, emotionally cold protagonists
You prefer broad comedy over irony and discomfort
You’re looking for a fast-paced crime plot
Overview
Gus Van Sant turns a tabloid murder story into something sly, chilly, and strangely buoyant. The film is less interested in the mechanics of the crime than in the machinery of image-making: Suzanne Stone is a person who treats fame like a religion and other people like disposable props.
Worth noting
Nicole Kidman gives the movie its voltage, playing Suzanne as both absurdly funny and genuinely frightening. The performance is all surface control and hidden panic, which makes the satire sting harder; the film keeps asking how much of American ambition is performance, and how much performance becomes identity.
Bottom line
What lingers is the movie’s tonal audacity. It’s a crime story, a media joke, and a character study that never fully lets you settle into one mode. That instability is part of the pleasure: it’s slick, mean, and very aware of how seductive self-invention can be.
Top Letterboxd reviews
vi (3.5★) · 3089 likes
not to be gay but i want nicole kidman to sit on my face
aaron (4.5★) · 2718 likes
*lady gaga voice* I don’t believe in the glorification of murder. I do believe in the empowerment of women.
nonig (4.5★) · 2544 likes
I think that,maybe,Nicole Kidman should be in every movie
#1 gizmo fan (3.5★) · 1923 likes
"I think if you wanted a babysitter, you should marry Mary Poppins."
one day, I will scam men just as Suzanne Stone taught me.
sarah squirm (4★) · 1794 likes
just when i thought a single movie couldn’t possibly get any hornier… there’s a CRONENBERG CAMEO?!? i dieeeeeeeeeee
1999 · Comedy, Drama · 1h 43m · R · Curator 7.8/10 (309.8K ratings) · Where to watch: fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, MGM Plus, Philo
Another viciously funny study of ambition, manipulation, and overreaching self-belief.
1998 · Crime, Drama, Thriller · 2h 1m · R · Curator 8.0/10 (147.9K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, MGM Plus, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A morally corrosive crime story about greed, rationalization, and collapse.