OLIVIA J. BENNETT

I’m an arts writer, researcher and critic based in Australia, open to commissions and collaborations.

I also work as a freelance communications specialist across brand, content and cultural strategy.

If you’d like to see my portfolio or chat about a project, feel free to get in touch.

Gertrude Contemporary Emerging Writers Program | 2020
Melbourne International Film Festival’s Critics Campus | 2019

SHINING GIRLS

Apple TV+

Written by Olivia J. Bennett
Edited by Claire Cao
Published in print by The Big Issue AU
Issue #660 | 29 April 2022

1/2

Elisabeth Moss returns to her old tricks, playing a strong-willed woman subverting male narratives inside an uncanny revision of reality. In Shining Girls, she plays Kirby Mazarachi, a journalist haunted by a brutal attack. Since the incident, she struggles to grapple with a butterfly-affected reality, driven by a determination to catch her serial perp (Jamie Bell, Billy Elliot). The script presents a lazy take on the memory loss that often accompanies survivors of abuse. Despite Moss’ success in similar roles (The Handmaid’s Tale, The Invisible Man), her take on this trope struggles to hold. Her past performances leave this thickly laden, fantastical feminist allegory feeling done before, as most of the series drags its feet, before making an unexpected drop into a hollow ending. Tired of seeing symptoms of trauma being used as thrilling, mind-bending narrative devices? It feels as though Moss is, too. Despite her award-winning dissociative stare and reserved speech, these traits feel far too methodical and forced here.