Alicia Silverstone flips the script on sex & power in ‘Pretty Thing’

Remember those highly sexualized s thrillers where our stoic leading man is threatened and nearly killed by a crazed woman driven mad by desire Alicia Silverstone does and Pretty Thing a contemporary battle of the sexes available on streaming platforms Friday offers a response This is a nod to the s erotic thriller with typically women who if they are sexual they re also crazy Or murderers Or something you know they are gonna try and kill you Silverstone s Sophie has a high-paying job marketing pharmaceuticals She s unapologetically sexual and she also is in her power she commented in a Zoom interview Elliot Karl Glusman her pick-up at the restaurant where he s a busboy is The one that is unraveling He s dangerous and manipulative Sophie Silverstone points out is doing exactly what men do all the time which is have a fling and move on This is what the world is currently With hookups online women are doing what men have been casually doing forever But Pretty Thing notes a sober reality Women may be emancipated but they can be physically and emotionally threatened in means that men often are not Sophie does self-defense We see her in boxing classes The feminist part comes in where she s not able to extricate herself the way maybe a man might be able to by threatening somebody and say Don t screw with me Instead she continues to be harassed until we get to what I felt was really a crazy wonderful but shocking finale Despite the inherent imbalance of this doomed coupling I also think she disclosed it s romantic In the beginning you feel like this could be a beautiful romantic story Sophie goes on a scant dates they re very exciting dates She takes him to Paris It s all really sexy and romantic and feels good By the third date she realizes they re not a good match She wants to move on And he doesn t and yeah there goes the rub Was Sophie s big mistake taking him to Paris when she s on a business trip If that were a guy taking a woman on a trip you wouldn t think twice about it right Silverstone responded It s these roles these ideas that we ve become accustomed to She genuinely thinks he s lovely I don t think she s thinking much further than this feels good Keep going Why should she think anything other than that And when it stops feeling good she wants it to end I don t think there s anything wrong with that But she finds that she s afraid and doesn t feel like she has anyone to turn to and just takes matters into her own hands She tries to threaten him She comes with a bunch of money and tries to pay him off She tries to scare him threaten him get him out of her life But he s dangerous Because he fell in love with her Or the idea of her They did have something very romantic and sweet at first It s unfortunate but it happens to everyone I mean I ve had dates with men and you get hopeful and think Oh this could be something Then you go No It s not But you thought it was for a minute and there s nothing wrong with that That s what dating is Pretty Thing is available on streaming platforms