Jenna Ortega: Here’s Why Her New Movie Has Caused Controversy

Jenna Ortega is everywhere. Coming soon to the Beetlejuice sequel and Season 2 on Wednesday, the actress stars in The Miller’s Girl, a thriller directed by Jade Bartlett. In this film, he plays Cairo Sweet, a brilliant student with a passion for literature.

The latter forms a particularly ambiguous bond with her teacher, Jonathan Miller, played by Martin Freeman (The Hobbit), an inspired writer and unhappy marriage. This sentimental and sexual frustration drives him to approach his student, ready to capture his attention.

Despite a rather secret American release – the film was released only in a few cinemas in the United States – Miller’s Girl caused a lot of feedback on social networks due to the significant age difference between the two actors. On social media, from X to TikTok to LetterBoxd, viewers have not been kind to the thriller, describing its story as “embarrassing”.

Even though Jenna Ortega’s character is an adult — she’s just 18 — Jade Bartlett’s film follows in the footsteps of Lolita, the 1962 film directed by Stanley Kubrick and adapted from the novel by Vladimir Nabokov. Unlike this literary classic, which casts its narrator as a pedophile, the schoolboy is shown here as the manipulative element that leads to the professor’s downfall.

Rather than being concerned with the mechanics of control and the balance of power, the film creates a misunderstanding between reality and the characters’ imaginations. Interview by the media ScreenRant On reviews, director Jade Bartlett explains:

“I hope people see that it’s more nuanced. I hope people can empathize with these non-binary characters. The perfect victim is boring. It’s boring to write this. It’s boring to play it. I think it’s dangerous to continue to portray women as perfect victims because it leaves us with no freedom of action.”

The Miller’s Girl is available on Prime Video.