Anya Taylor-Joy stars in one of Netflix's recent series releases, The Queen's Gambit. The story follows a young girl, Beth Harmon as she moves through life, first as an orphan in a home for girls, then through her teenage years and early adulthood as she becomes a world-renowned chess player. Beth is a tragic and triumphant character who struggles with substance abuse issues from the age of nine. Being exposed early on to tranquilizers at the girl's home which she lived in, Beth soon develops an addiction to tranquilizers (and later alcohol) which follows her into her young adulthood. Despite grappling with these issues, she is still able to excel as a chess player. Towards the resolution of the series, Beth reaches rock bottom, and is only pulled out of her rut by her close friend Jolene, right before she plays one of the biggest games of her life against her greatest competitor Vasily Borgov (played by Marcin Dorocinski).
This series, which really plays out like a very long film is historical fiction, is supposedly loosely based on the life of Bobby Fischer, who similar to Beth suffered from mental illness and rose to prominence during the 20th century. Interestingly, despite the series being set in the Cold War, there isn't overwhelming screen time dedicated to the red scare that was happening at the time.
One of my biggest critiques of the film is the dry acting. Anya Taylor-Joy is very stiff in this series and only shows emotion when absolutely necessary. For about 80% of the series she emotes very little and mostly stares blankly ahead. Despite these faults, the series deals with heavy topics such as substance abuse and familial dysfunction very well.
At the close of the series, Harmon is able to conquer her addiction and realizes that she isn't truly an orphan, having garnered a loyal group of friends throughout her journey.
I recommend the series, particularly for one of the stand out characters: Jolene (played by Moses Ingram). Her acting is strong and her character development (though we only witness it briefly) is one of my favorite arcs. Plus, Anya Taylor-Joy looks really good in that red wig so overall, I'd say it's a 9/10.
