Mila Kunis stars in The Luckiest Girl Alive, a Netflix film that adapts a novel by Jessica Knoll. If one hasn’t read the book (which is quite graphic at times) and only viewed the trailer, one could be forgiven for assuming that this could be a hybrid of a romantic drama with Gone Girl-esque tones. (That’s not the case.) The trailer stays very vague and only alludes to “an incident” experienced in high school by Mila’s character, TifAni FaNelli (her given name is not the source of the drama, although it arguably could be part of it). She restyles herself as a New York-based writer (Ani) with a glossy exterior appearance and a wealthy fiancé (Finn Whitrock).
The trailer seems to promise a punchy protagonist who will light the world on fire by making something of herself by acquiring a dream life that, presumably, no one would have expected that she could achieve. Here’s that trailer because it really does appear to promise something different than what the movie delivers.
No trigger warning exists for Luckiest Girl Alive before it streams on Netflix. And let’s just say that Mila’s character is a survivor. She not only lived through a mass shooting as a teenager (Scoot McNairy plays her teacher, a genuinely good dude) but also multiple rapes by fellow classmates. Ani’s nursing an eating disorder as well, but man, the sexual assault scenes are disturbing, as well as her PTSD from everything that Ani endured as a teen.
Many social media users do seem to overall enjoy the movie, but they also have a real issue with the film’s surprise triggers, and they’re calling Netflix out for failing to be more forthright about the movie’s subject matter.
went into luckiest girl alive thinking it was going to be a gone girl type thriller but it was actually a quietly brutal film about rape & ptsd, so tread carefully watching it if those are triggers for you
— Chels (@Ceeinwonderland) October 9, 2022
https://twitter.com/RodneyRikai/status/1578578527225380864
https://twitter.com/SkylarRaylynn/status/1578411946264518656
https://twitter.com/jill_xo/status/1578560314815442945
Netflix didn’t bother to give a trigger warning but i will. do NOT watch Luckiest Girl Alive if you are only expecting a movie about a school shooting. there are very very graphic depictions of SA as the main plot point.
— haley roy 🌻 (@HaleyDaley) October 10, 2022
https://twitter.com/divinekarmaaa/status/1578926550249938944
https://twitter.com/brirydernyc/status/1578534941981220865
i thought i missed the trigger warning about luckiest girl alive, but reading the tweets now, there were no TW about SA, right? anyway slaying this panic attack.
— this is my username lol (@millennial_core) October 7, 2022
The Luckiest Girl Alive was the perfect portrayal of what it’s like to be a victim of rape.
That said, as a victim, you absolutely need a trigger warning. I had to flash forward a bit and while it is about a school shooting it is very much still a graphic picture of assault. https://t.co/NSNHsCx99Z
— Beth Booker (she/her) (@itsbethbooker) October 12, 2022
The Luckiest Girl Alive should come w some sort of trigger warning for sexual assault. I am not even a survivor of sexual assault but ended up cowering and covering my eyes and ears during that scene. The worst. Awful. Still thinking abt it the day after.
— Aidila Razak (@aidilarazak) October 11, 2022
Trigger Warning: Luckiest Girl Alive is currently streaming on Netflix.