that's what i love, seeing them lose everything

red rooms (pascal plante, 2023)

The impassive and inscrutable Kelly-Anne is a model who lives in a mostly empty high-rise apartment in Montreal, plays online poker for some extra spending money, works out to YouTube videos, and, finally, attends every open session of the trial of Ludovic Chevalier, a man accused of torturing three teenage girls to death on dark web “red rooms.” When Clementine, another attendee of the trial who fervently believes in Chevalier’s innocence, befriends Kelly-Anne under the impression she’s found another groupie, Kelly-Anne does not correct her. In poker and in life, she waits for other people to make a mistake. Then she beats them.

The copy/paste summary of the movie you find online in various places (“when reality blurs with her morbid fantasies, she goes down a dark path…”) suggests that this movie is about the dark side of obsession or the line between reality and fantasy. This is completely wrong; the movie is, for the most part, firmly grounded in reality and there’s no point at wh…