The Perfection (2018)

Warning: this review contains plot spoilers and the movie has some pretty intense themes of sexual abuse

Some movies simply should not get made.
Or, if for some reason, a director or executive producer really gets the bug up their ass that their ‘vision’ desperately needs to get burned into someone else’s vision, they need a Debby Downer nearby to set realistic expectations.
“The Perfection” (2018) really could have used one of those.

Charlotte (Allison Williams) was a cellist protege, studying under the tutelage of Anton (Steven Weber) at a world-renowned music school - the kind where you spend decades living there and learning to be the best of the best of the best.
Life went sideways and she was replaced by Lizzie (Logan Browning), whereupon she was effectively and immediately forgotten by Anton and the school.
A decade later, Charlotte tracked down Anton and the school staff to a conference in Beijing, where Anton was selecting a new student to join the program.

Initially, we saw that plan unfold from Lizzie’s perspective: Lizzie invited Charlotte to spend some travel time with her, then got progressively more sick during her first day of vacation in terrifyingly rural China, saw bugs crawling out of her skin, threw up some maggots, and ended with cutting off her own hand to prevent the bugs from spreading. This was outstanding as a psychological horror premise, and I was on the edge of my seat as it spiraled out of control.
Then the movie ‘rewound’ 12 hours and showed Charlotte’s plan in action, where she replaced ibuprofen with a drug, convinced a hungover Lizzie to take a bunch, then played along with the hallucinations as they traveled on a bus as the only two English speakers.
It was a darkly intriguing revenge plan to watch unfold, but would have completely fallen apart if Lizzie hadn't liked Charlotte enough to even want to spend time with her in the first place (they had known each other for 12 hours by the time of the travel invitation).
Convenient for the plot, not great as a premeditated plan.

Long story short, it turned out that Anton sexually abused both girls when they played music wrong, and now that he's picked a new student it's a race against the clock to prevent him from doing it again. Lizzie was dealing with some kind of Stockholm Syndrome from Anton's abuse, as her skills as a cellist did make her world-renowned, but losing a hand made it awful hard to play a string instrument, so she snapped back to reality and decided that Charlotte had "helped" her.
"Help" here in quotes, because dismembering someone isn't really great in any context, but it kept the plot rolling forward, so... yay?
Ultimately, gory revenge was had by our protagonists and we got the happiest possible ending while Anton suffered gruesome a fate worse than death.

Somewhere in there, there was a second plot device that also relied on the “if everyone else does exactly what I need them to, then my plan will work out” gimmick. While this second one made more sense, it was still entirely contrived.

The only good thing about this movie was the soundtrack, and it was outstanding - it fit every scene exactly as it should.
Much of the soundtrack was also played in a minor key, which was a great aesthetic choice, making many scenes feel heavier and darker than other background musical options would have.
The cello music was also great, I think.
I’m generally not a fan of solo cello music, so while I’m sure the instrument was played properly throughout the movie, it often sounded like there were missed notes.

I can't say I recommend this.
Watching Charlotte and Lizzie take their revenge against Anton felt kinda cathartic as his past abuses became clearer, but somehow didn't lend much to the story, which left it feeling relatively shallow.
Charlotte's initial plan to hijack Lizzie's life was very entertaining, though heavily flawed, while their conjoined plan to get revenge on Anton made a lot more sense.
Still though, it wasn't great.
If you stop watching right after Lizzie’s amputation, then this becomes 2-Claw piece of short-story horror.
If you watch the whole thing, it’s a solid 1-Claw that you really should have skipped.