Plucked is a film that very much feels like a project plucked from obscurity. Between the offbeat heroine chewing up scenery with her mouth open and the remaining dialogue eagerly chomping at the leftovers, this twisted comedy is a total revenge riot.
Directors Usher Morgan and Katie Vincent craft a slicing narrative that thrives in the unrelenting vibrancy of its surroundings. The Gilded Age meets Heathers in this punk rock feast for the eyes.
From the opening score, it’s clear the stuffy, dust-coated period piece will be done away with for something far more bitter, dark, and risky.
The first act of this film is a perfect marriage of the elegant time period and the crackling oppression of women being undone in real time. From dazzling architecture and texture-forward interior design to the high-end fashion that skyrocketed this period to historical envy, this film serves up a delicious feast for the eyes.
The jagged-edged period piece follows Katherine Greene, a woman who learns she has been granted the right to divorce her horrid husband just hours before an important dinner party with his coworkers.
A glutinous revenge tale, the film pushes Katherine to indulge in her most selfish fantasies as she breaks away from Peter’s abusive hold on her family’s lustrous purse strings. After learning he intends to bleed even more donations from her estate right under his wife’s nose, Katherine’s efforts to gorge herself on his suffering throughout the evening intensify.
The first act that clings so feverishly and hilariously to that concept thrives under the thrumming gaze of leading lady Katie Vincent.
Her portrayal of Katherine is dynamic and captivating from the very first moment we lay eyes on the New York socialite. Once she has the loaded gun in the form of a divorce, Vincent transforms the role into an absolute scene-stealer. She overpowers a room of grazing guests with blunt observations and aggressive abuse of the set pieces through her commanding presence in each scene.
Every interaction is designed to irritate her husband and enthrall us with a vibrancy that matches the modern twist on this period piece.
Vincent is such a standout in this piece, knocking down anyone who gets her character’s way with this mesmerizing and bulldozing performance, that it would be a tragedy not to cast her in everything moving forward. She is the diamond of any season.
Additionally, Jared Canfield understands the assignment in his portrayal of Peter, who is introduced as a spineless Edgar Allan Poe wannabe that quickly descends into the bloodthirsty, egotistical monster that drives the back half of this film.
Alas Plucked is having so much fun, it’s a shame to see the film cut its momentum short so violently.
The first act is a plucky, record-scratch take on the marriage revenge tale. The volatile dinner party clashing with the polite shrouds of society is so rich with potential, it seems the party could go all night. However, the dinner party at the center of its draw abruptly ends well before the film can reach the halfway mark.
The moment the quiet of the post-evening festivities sets in, the rocket ship this film is riding upwards takes a deflating nose dive into the ground.
While Katherine getting it on with James in another act of revenge is intriguing, Peter immediately finding out is a catalyst that should come much further down the line.
Once Peter turns the evening into a deadly game of cat and mouse, there’s no pulling back on the act of escalation. Thus the film stumbles through a “will-he-won’t he” struggle between Peter and his two hostages for over half the film’s run time. By the time any real bloodshed happens, we’re practically begging for someone to get stabbed just so something interesting can happen.
Plucked is very much a victim of its own pacing and editing.
Peter and Katherine’s confrontation needs more time to simmer before it boils over. Their spite-filled relationship festers so beautifully in the early hours of the evening, and we need more of that build-up to the main battle. Peter’s escalation should come in the third act, turning their revenge tale into a violent one just in time to escalate the violence rather than sit on it for suspense.
This darkly twisted comedy has incredible set design, lighting, and costumes, with a skilled cinematographer in Guiseppe Masi who brings it all to life with a playfulness Hollywood won’t dare attempt these days. Considering this film had a budget of $350,000, the industry should be ashamed that every billion-dollar film doesn’t look half as good as this one.
We need to make more films like Plucked; audiences want films that look like this and talk like this and feel alive like this.
Its potential is the sum of its parts, even if the film’s back half falls apart in the coldest betrayal of all.
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Plucked’s limited theatrical run begins on November 13, 2026. The film releases digitally on January 15, 2027.
