Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

M.F.A. Blu-ray Movie Review

Bad Boys Get Spanked (and Dead)

Reviewed by Michael Reuben December 11, 2017

M.F.A. stands for "Master of Fine Arts", and director Natalia Leite's second feature film (after 2015's Bare) traces one M.F.A. candidate's violent and tragic path toward artistic achievement. The independently produced thriller creatively borrows from horror and slasher tropes, which is no doubt why it's been adopted by MPI Media's Dark Sky Films, which has released the film on Blu-ray.

Francesca Eastwood—Clint's daughter with actress Frances Fisher—stars as Noelle, an M.F.A candidate at Balboa University, whose work is deemed superficial and emotionless by both her professor (Marlon Young) and her classmates. But everything changes for Noelle when she is raped by a fellow art student (Peter Vack), who ingratiates himself by pretending to be interested in her work. After campus authorities refuse to intervene, Noelle confronts her rapist, and the encounter transforms her into an avenging vigilante who is determined to bring her own version of justice to every sexual predator she can find in the student body. (A support group for rape victims proves to be a good source of leads.) At the same time, Noelle taps into a new reserve of artistic inspiration, and her paintings take a dark and disturbing turn that draws universal praise. The more violence she commits, the better her work becomes.

By treating rape as a creative breakthrough, M.F.A.'s script by Leah McKendrick (who has a small but pivotal role as Noelle's friend and neighbor) walks a fine line between exploitation and social commentary. In different hands, the film might have become nothing more than a female Death Wish. But Eastwood's gripping performance maintains the necessary balance, allowing Noelle (and us) to enjoy her explosive displays of righteous anger while her expressive eyes and haunted demeanor serve as constant reminders of the trauma she has suffered and the demons now driving her. As Noelle's attacks grow increasingly reckless and the likelihood of her apprehension by the authorities ripens into near-certainty, Eastwood reveals her to be a victim even in revenge. She cannot control the emotional fires burning inside her. They may fuel her creativity, but they are also consuming her. Noelle does a lot of damage before she implodes, and much of it is well-deserved. But M.F.A. turns out to be a portrait of the artist as a slow-motion suicide.

Director Leite and her creative team get plenty of glossy production value out of their limited resources, but M.F.A. does betray its low-budget origins with a major continuity gaffe that should have been fixed with reshoots. Clifton Collins Jr., who's the most familiar face in the cast, gets second billing as the phlegmatic police detective investigating this sudden epidemic of violence on the Balboa campus. In his initial scenes, he's clean-shaven, but just a few days later, he's inexplicably hirsute, sporting a full beard and a bushy moustache and sideburns. Collins was in HBO's Westworld, where he played multiple roles, and he's known as an acting chameleon who disappears into his roles. But here he ends up being upstaged by the distraction of his mysterious facial hair.

M.F.A. Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

M.F.A. was shot digitally by Aaron Kovalchik, who recently advanced to cinematographer after an apprenticeship on arthouse productions like Bernard and Doris and Sorry, Haters. Kovalchik has lit this violent tale of revenge like a glossy advertisement for luxury goods, with brightly illuminated surfaces and richly saturated colors that surround Noelle with an environment that anyone would envy—her house and pool are the most sumptuous student residence I've ever seen—all of which makes the shattering of Noelle's world more jarring when she's assaulted. The stark red and whites of the plaid shirt that Noelle's wears as an artist's smock are sometimes echoed in the production design (e.g., the locker room, where she stalks one of her victims), and the photography makes the most of these visual links. MPI Media's 1080p, AVC-encoded disc features the sharpness, detail and lack of noise or interference that is typical of digital photography on Blu-ray, and the coldly immaculate image is a suitable counterpoint to the heroine's increasingly roiling emotions and messy circumstances. MPI has mastered M.F.A. at an average bitrate of 25.99 Mbps, with a capable encode.

M.F.A. Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

M.F.A.'s 5.1 soundtrack has been encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA. It's mostly a front-oriented affair, but the front soundstage is fairly active, especially when the electronic score by composer Sonya Belousova (in her feature film debut) samples bits of Noelle's dialogue and appears to be echoing them back to her. Dynamic range is sufficiently broad, and the dialogue is clearly rendered and appropriately prioritized.

As is typical of MPI releases, an alternate PCM 2.0 track is included.

M.F.A. Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interviews (1080p; 1.78:1; 4:11): These interviews are brief and promotional, and there's a fair amount of overlap between the "Full Team" collection and the individual segments. A "play all" function is included.
• Full Team
• Natalia Leite
• Francesca Eastwood
• Leah McKendrick



• Trailer (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:13): In addition to the film's trailer in the extras, at startup the disc plays trailers for It Stains the Sand Red and Nails.

M.F.A. Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

M.F.A. is hardly the first female vigilante film; the subgenre stretches back at least to the Eighties, which saw the birth of a four-film series about a gun-toting teenage prostitute called Angel. But Leite's film aspires to be more than an exploitation film, and, thanks to Eastwood's performance, it succeeds. MPI's Blu-ray is capable and recommended.