Most Beautiful Island

New York City holds the promise of a new life, but in the interim a 20-something under-the-radar Spanish immigrant faces a series of increasingly humiliating cash-in-hand jobs, in this US indie drama. Here's the "gig economy" writ large, as Ana Asensio finds herself handing out leaflets in costume, minding bratty bourgeois kids, and eventually latching on to a promised significant payday just for turning up at a mysterious party in a little black dress. The fixer in question assures her that no sex is involved, but what does unfold in the film's second half is so creepy and outlandish it takes us into a wildly different register from the slightly shrill social-realist study we've been watching. The story's empathy for those on the receiving end of bitter financial exploitation is never in doubt, yet the treatment proves both hectoring and increasingly lacking in credibility as it ventures into horror movie territory. Writer-director-star Asensio deserves some credit for breaking the familiar liberal-conscience mould, but this time her enterprise doesn't really pay off.