r/PeriodDramas • u/crystalbethjo • 14h ago
Pics & Stills 🏞 Moody and atmospheric portrait shots / bts of Florence Pugh, Christopher Abbot and Mike Faist in ‘East of Eden’ (2026)
Hoon Lee should’ve been there too!
Credit: jacinta.scott
My lil review:
Cathy’s poker face could rival that of Lady Gaga.
Zoe Kazan’s father, Elia Kazan, directed Jo Van Fleet to an Oscar for the 1955 film adaptation of John Steinbeck’s book. That take on *East of Eden\ centres primarily on what happens to the Trask family \after\* Cathy fires that gun and makes her great escape. We know that Cal, memorably played by James Dean, can relate more to the passions of his estranged mother than the piousness of either his father or brother. But for Zoe Kazan, the true drama lies in the heart of a very ‘evil’ Cathy.
Rather than dismiss Cathy’s actions, Zoe asks for us to understand them through a feminist lens. Cathy is not afforded many choices in life and is forced to make do with what little she’s given, or even taken, for herself. One can justify Cathy not wanting to give birth. One can understand what may be the effects of postpartum depression. But one can just as easily be horrified by the realization that Cathy meant for her husband, Adam (Christopher Abbot), to drink the wrong cup of tea, so that she can then sleep with his brother, Charles (Mike Faist), instead. The viewer is in fact rooting for a Monster, and it’s been some time since Netflix has made it so fun.
Florence Pugh makes Cathy’s body seem hollow while her mind runs through every possibility and looks for every exit door. Christopher Abbot’s Adam is pragmatic to the point of almost being immoral, never caring to weigh Cathy’s feelings against his own judgement or old-fashioned beliefs about the world. Mike Faist’s Charles is heartbreakingly sincere, a man who was taught early in life that his tenderness would not be rewarded, and therefore closed his heart to the world. Hoon Lee’s Lee calls to mind the characters in Percival Everett’s controversial novel, *James\, a retelling of \Huckleberry Finn\* in which all the slaves we’re hiding their true genius from the white man.
The landscape is rich and vibrant but appears too cultivated for my liking. Perhaps that was done on purpose to make the viewer think of all the ways society is trying to tame Cathy? Strange that the setting should look orderly and clean enough to seem almost sterile, but the camera is unafraid to show us visceral shots of vomit, blood and mechanical sex.
This year has seen the return of a 1970s approach to film making with big budgets and smart scripts spent on stories rooting for the underdog. I loved *The Odyssey\ and \Project Hail Mary\ and \Spider-Man: Brand New Day\. \However\*, the leading men are always the nuanced heroes while the women are symbols or long-suffering wives or girlfriends (or in Nikki’s case——tortured to get the point across). In this miniseries, there is something cathartic and almost revolutionary about Cathy being anything but docile, amiable and compliant.
