Jennifer Reeder’s “Perpetrator” is a spiritual successor to 2019’s John Waters-y, super-sensory-heightened debut “Knives and Skin,” serving vibes as a main course.
That’s not entirely a damning accusation.
Reeder’s style provokes delirium and allows her characters to float through hallucinogenic universes, which the filmmaker somehow controls.
“Perpetrator” feels indebted to everything from high school humor in “Clueless” to body horror yuckiness in “Society” to uniquely pubescent terror in “Teeth” — a tonal collision that some won’t survive, and others will slurp down like Four Lokos at an underage pregame.Jonny (slickly played too-cool-for-school by Kiah McKirnan) is your average kleptomaniac teenager sent to live with her coldly postured Aunt Hildie (Alicia Silverstone).
Jonny’s mother has vanished, and her father cannot provide the necessary support for an impending life-changing event once she turns eighteen.
Upon the milestone birthday, Jonny inherits ancestral superpowers that allow her to sense hyper-empathy.
She…
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