“Every part I’ve mentioned and achieved has been within the palms of God. I used to be born to do that. I’m not afraid.” Bella Thorne’s vigilante serial killer protagonist repeats this highly effective Joan of Arc quote a number of occasions all through Saint Clare. Based mostly on writer Don Roff’s 2021 novel Clare at Sixteen, director and co-writer Mitzi Peirone’s 2024 movie — additionally penned by Guinevere Turner, of Go Fish and American Psycho fame — facilities on enigmatic small-town school scholar Clare Bleeker (Thorne), whose drifter childhood left her unable to maintain long-term intimacy. Nonetheless, she’s left a bloody mark on each city and metropolis she’s briefly referred to as dwelling, murdering immoral and downright evil males and getting away with it each time.
Saint Clare
2
/5
- Launch Date
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September 5, 2024
- Runtime
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92 minutes
- Director
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Mitzi Peirone
- Writers
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Guinevere Turner
- Producers
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Cassian Elwes, Mark Damon, Tamara Birkemoe, Bella Thorne, Joel Michaely, Jere Hausfater, Seth Needle, Thor Bradwell, Nadia Redler, David Chackler, Veronica Radaelli, Arielle Elwes, Dave Sereny
Clare is guided by mysterious voices, in addition to an innate information that what she’s doing is God’s will. However when Clare kills Joe Morton (Bart Johnson), a predatory and unsophisticated man who drives across the tiny city of Pickmann Flats kidnapping younger ladies, she quickly finds herself in the midst of a decades-long thriller surrounding lacking women, corruption and human trafficking.
However what may’ve been a scrumptious mix of Dexter and Medium with a sprinkling of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is tonally confused and determined to revive the twisted magnetism of Peirone’s cryptocurrency-funded Tribeca hit Braid. That includes a daring aesthetic that mimicked an Alice in Wonderland acid journey, Braid supplied one thing bizarre and recent. However Saint Clare, which additionally stars Ryan Phillippe and Rebecca De Mornay, is sadly misguided, with clashing components that recall Imply Ladies, Carrie and The CW Community. For a movie supposedly rooted in religion and sacrifice, Saint Clare is sinful in its uncertainty.
Martyrdom, Pesky Ghosts, and an Unlucky Wig
“Similar to the martyred visionary normal Joan of Arc, Clare has taught me that if you end up destined with imaginative and prescient and readability of objective, then nothing can scare you — not loneliness, not violence, not being misunderstood and referred to as insane, not rejection and finally not even demise,” Peirone writes in her director’s assertion. This declaration is woven into Saint Clare, because the fearless protagonist holds Joan — the patron saint of France who was burned on the stake for heresy — near her coronary heart. Regardless of the movie’s religious overtones, Saint Clare feels disconnected from private piety, as imagery of Clare singing in a church choir, a movie poster for 1928’s The Ardour of Joan of Arc and a cluster of crimson votive candles surrounding a photograph of the protagonist’s late mom categorical its threadbare non secular theme.
The viewers isn’t instructed why or how Clare grew to become non secular, except for the truth that she attends a Catholic school. The specifics of her supernatural presents aren’t clearly laid out, both: Layered whispers fill her head, as do darkish visions of being burned alive on the stake. However Clare’s presents grow to be confused and far-fetched when the ghost of a mailman (Frank Whaley) visits her, generally annoying her with recommendation and generally feeding her hints. This wildly out-of-place gimmick, which recollects movies like Ghost City and Beetlejuice, is considered one of Saint Clare‘s greatest sins. Its jarring goofiness simply doesn’t combine with the story, which explores the burden of religion by means of Clare’s uncovering of a human trafficking operation.
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Peirone’s surrealist model is a poor match for Saint Clare extra usually: The dreamlike imagery and experimental visuals really feel heavy, even incorrect, in opposition to that wacky postman spirit and the superficial characters. Of Clare’s two close-ish pals, Juliana LeBlanc (Pleasure Rovaris) and Amity Liston (Erica Dasher), the latter is extra so a frenemy who speaks within the cadence of Imply Ladies‘ Gretchen Wieners for seemingly no purpose. A lot of Amity’s quips really feel misplaced, and the outdated and fully pointless characterization of Joel Michaely’s stereotypical sassy homosexual theater director is plucked straight from the 2010s. The comedian ridiculousness continues when Johnson reappears in a ratty shake-and-go wig because the lifeless man’s brother, and when Clare makes use of her fight expertise (that are barely defined) to defeat a room stuffed with males whereas sporting a schoolgirl miniskirt.
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It is painfully unclear whether or not Saint Clare was meant to be playful camp or a trendy whodunit laced with non secular allegories. Thorne’s efficiency is at occasions shaky, and though Peirone’s color-saturated imaginative and prescient provides depth and grit, the challenge finally lacks a confident id. Given her knack for seeing the deviant magnificence in destruction, nonetheless, Peirone will hopefully be capable to wash Saint Clare‘s blood from her palms.
Saint Clare hits U.S. theaters and VOD and on digital platforms on July 18, 2025.