Writer/director Alex Ross Perry doesn't make easy movies. For 2014's "Listen Up Philip," he submitted one of the most unpleasant lead characters of the film year. For "Queen of Earth," he explores the abyss of mental illness. He's not the cheery type, but Perry has a way of making these dramatic explorations worthwhile, with periodic blips of profundity. Carried by a wonderfully ragged lead performance from Elisabeth Moss, "Queen of Earth" steps away from a clinical understanding of depression to go semi-Polanski, treating the fractured experience of a complete unraveling with a full immersion into paranoia and hopelessness, emerging with a secure study of friendship and phobia that feels organically communicated yet sharply cinematic. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

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