Miss Meadows (2014)
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A suburban substitute teacher leads a double life as a secret vigilante who eliminates local criminals.
The story
Miss Mary Meadows is a young woman who works as a substitute first-grade elementary school teacher in a suburban neighborhood. While she appears to be an innocent woman who enjoys long walks in floral clothing and tap-dancing shoes, she is secretly a vigilante who uses a small semi-automatic pistol to kill local thugs and criminals. A local sheriff investigating the vigilante killings soon develops an attraction to her due to her old-fashioned style. However, as he begins to suspect she is the killer, he finds himself torn between the desire to arrest her and the urge to protect her.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Miss Mary Meadows, a substitute teacher who speaks in a childlike manner, secretly hunts criminals with a pistol. She lives alone and imagines she speaks to her mother on the phone, though it is revealed she is actually reliving a trauma from witnessing her mother's murder as a child. She kills a trucker, a mass shooter, and a molesting priest. A local sheriff investigating the crimes becomes attracted to her, torn between duty and desire. When she meets Skylar, an ex-convict for child abuse, she threatens him, leading him to stalk her. After a sexual encounter with the sheriff, she becomes pregnant and accepts his marriage proposal. On their wedding day, Skylar kidnaps one of her students, Heather. Miss Meadows goes to his house in her wedding dress, frees Heather, but is captured. The sheriff arrives, shoots Skylar, and takes her back to the church. A year later, they are married with a daughter, living a peculiar life together.
- First release year
- 2014
- Runtime (minutes)
- 88
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Karen Leigh Hopkins
- Writers
- Karen Leigh Hopkins · writer; Karen Leigh Hopkins · director
- Cast and characters
- Katie Holmes · Miss Mary Meadows; James Badge Dale; Callan Mulvey; Stephen Bishop
- Genres
- dark comedy; thriller; black comedy; comedy thriller
- Themes
- vigilantism; trauma; fantasy; protection
- Tone and mood
- dark comedy; thriller
- Premise and plot tags
- vigilante; teacher; black comedy; thriller
- Reception
- Miss Meadows received negative reviews from critics. On Metacritic, the film has a rating of 43 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 43 · scale: 100 · review count: 13; Metacritic · score: 43 · scale: 100 · review count: 13
- Production trivia
- Principal photography and production began on August 6, 2013, in Cleveland, Ohio.; Miss Meadows drives a 1956 Nash Metropolitan.; The film was premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, 2014.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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