Her Smell possesses a visceral energy that immediately wraps you up in its dizzying madness. The film doesn’t loosen its grip until the credits roll, and at times, its so tight that you can barely breathe. The narrative is thin, and really it’s nothing new, but the performances and execution elevate the end result through the stratosphere. All of its efforts are directed solely on the characters, and slowly and subtly, it reveals shades of depth and definition to each individual character and their relationships, creating layers that the audience gets to unravel. The characters feel completely authentic, and it’s absolutely spellbinding watching them interact with one another. There’s an exciting theatrical quality to its design and approach that is deeply gripping and electric. Even though there’s not much happening narratively, you can’t help but be enthralled in the insanity.

Structurally, the film is similar to Danny Boyle’s 2015 biopic, Steve Jobs, in that it is broken into sections from different periods of the characters life. With Her Smell, Perry broke it into five crucial and meaty scenes from Becky Something’s post-glory days career, padded with 90s-era home move style footage of the Becky’s band, Something She, in their heyday. The context these segments provider allows the viewer to immediately understand what the band used to be, who they are now, and where they are in their downward spiral. These flashback codas really help to emphasize the degradation the band has endured due to Becky’s eccentric insanity and ruthlessly megalomaniacal stranglehold. They give the film an added element of the past trying to wrestle with the present — something which almost begins to obscure any potential future for Becky or the band.