M.F.A. (2017)

An art student taps into a rich source of creative inspiration after the accidental slaughter of her rapist. An unlikely vigilante emerges, set out to avenge college girls whose attackers walked free.

Director:

Natalia Leite

Writer:

Leah McKendrick

Stars:

Francesca Eastwood, Clifton Collins Jr., Leah McKendrick

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Francesca Eastwood	...	Noelle
Clifton Collins Jr.	...	Kennedy
Leah McKendrick	...	Skye
Peter Vack	...	Luke
David Sullivan	...	Cavanaugh
David Huynh	...	Shane
Marlon Young	...	Professor Rudd
Jess Nurse	...	Lindsey
Mary Price Moore	...	Melinda Sanders
Melanie Britton	...	Jenna
Michael Welch	...	Mason
Mike C. Manning	...	Jeremiah
Kyle McKeever	...	Calvin
Kyler Pettis	...	Conor
Mariah Owen	...	Charlotte

Storyline

When Noelle, a timid California fine arts graduate student, is invited to a party by a handsome classmate she has a crush on, a vicious sexual assault and a blood-stained reaction will give birth to a totally different woman. But, much to Noelle's surprise, as an unexpected surge of inspiration gradually fuels her stagnant artistic expression, an insatiable thirst for revenge on all those who destroyed the lives of innocent women will begin to devour her. Who shall stand in the way of this seductive, yet pitiless vigilante? In the end, is seduction really a dying art?

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Plot Keywords:

female killer | propaganda film | feminism | male victim | rape | 

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Taglines:

This semester... predator becomes prey and student becomes master.

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Genres:

Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 October 2017 (USA)

Also Known As:

Mfa

Filming Locations:

Chapman University - One University Drive, Orange, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Villainess Productions, GTE Productions, Syncretic Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The title of the movie (M.F.A.) is from "Master of Fine Arts" which is the degree the main character is in school to achieve.

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Soundtracks

Nothing Is Gonna Hurt You Baby
Written by Greg Gonzalez
Performed by Cigarettes After Sex
Courtesy of Cigarettes After Sex
Under Arrangement by Syncalicious Music, LLC.

User Reviews

Only reason to watch this is Francesa Eastwood

If you expect a rape revenge thriller you will be disappointed. There is not much revenge here. Instead it's a straight forward no budget rape vigilante drama with a few thriller elements.

Neither the director nor writer took their time to actual research the subject or talk to victims. Or even bothered to watch much better movies on the subject of the last four decades.

They just took some stuff from headlines over the last few years as well as YouTube and Facebook comments - you know where everyone is an expert on everything. And then they just ran with it as they hard a marketable script that was probably whipped up over a weekend.

Basic premise: all men are evil, no one cares about rape victims, rape culture everywhere and all women are victims. This is quite an insult to any real life rape victim.

The movie stays as shallow as possible on the subject and instead tries to adds a few graphic scenes and some thriller elements to get it going. But even there it stays tame and fails basic writing class.

The script is not very well written, the actors are bad, overall low production quality, shots are framed bad, music not matching, bad sound recording/mixing and so on. Basically it is amateur hour.

But there is one exception. And that is Francesa Eastwood.

And she is the reason you should watch this movie. Put in in your queue on your streaming service.

Eastwood basically takes a very bad script to begin with and a not fleshed out main protagonist and gives that character life and depths. She carries the movie on her own and is the only reason you keep watching it to the end.

The movie itself gets 1 out of 10 and is absolutely forgettable. This could have a much deeper movie if writer/director actually cared to investigate the subject and cast some talented actors.

But Eastwood's performance makes is a solid 5 out of 10. She carries the movie and is the only reason why you should consider to put this drama with thriller elements on your watch list.