Elle Fanning has just had a wonderful award season with her ‘Sentimental Value’ crew and castmates, who turned a dysfunctional family drama into something that floored nearly everyone it reached. Now, she returns with ‘Margo’s Got Money Troubles,’ another project that explores complicated family dynamics through a similarly compassionate lens, while analyzing some contentious topics and following some flawed characters. When the show got announced, some outlets referred to it as one about a fighter’s family, which led to some skepticism. Until now, many projects have rehashed tropes about a traumatized boxer and his frustrated wife to the point that it has spawned a recurring SNL character.
Luckily, the show deals with such tropes with far more nuance and ensures it doesn’t get lost in the sea of lazily rendered projects. The credit goes far more to direction and acting performances than to the script, which sometimes falters when addressing its potent themes about the protagonist’s journey toward self-determination. Dearbhla Walsh (Bad Sisters), Kate Herron (Loki), and Alice Seabright (Chloe), who share the directorial duties, make the show both tender and gripping. They transform this psychological tale into an irresistible drama by capturing the ebb and flow of every character’s life, leaving us with memorable moments even from the most mundane aspects.
The show begins as a dreamy tale about a young college student, Margo (Elle Fanning), whose literary skills draw the attention of her 30-something professor, Mark (Michael Angarano). Shortly after, she finds herself dealing with an unplanned pregnancy all alone, as the baby’s father refuses to take the responsibility. He abandons her, worried it would affect his existing marriage. As it happens, Margo’s father, Jinx (Nick Offerman), remains out of the picture. It’s not clear whether he had ever been a part of her life, either. So, her mother, Shayanne (Michelle Pfeiffer), took care of her the same way she plans to take care of her baby — as a young mother without a responsible partner.
The thematic connections don’t end here. They extend as the father returns into her life, partly for himself, partly for her. He arrives as a middle-aged man, once a famed wrestler, now way past his youthful irreverence, on his journey of sobriety, hoping to make amends and seeking redemption. So, it leans into a fairly familiar arc of absent fathers. Yet, Offerman manages to bring a raw emotionality to his performance that works remarkably well. He plays it in the same register as he did in that gut-wrenching episode in ‘The Last of Us’ — through similar shades of a man grieving the lost chances.
Jinx’s mournful act offers one side of the argument, whereas Shayanne’s justified resentment reveals another. As they try to find common ground, Margo struggles to find it in her life. Her child’s father remains similarly hopeless, leaving her to seek any potential option to make ends meet. With her unfinished college education leaving her with no discernible prospects, she decides to start an OnlyFans account to support her family.
For those unfamiliar with this video platform, it doesn’t have a fine reputation, as a lot of its visitors happen to be insecure men, and its content frequently includes sexually suggestive videos. Through this thread, the narrative explores the pervasive nature of the male gaze and its dehumanizing effect on female streamers. That’s also why people have polarizing views about the platform and how its data incentivizes harmful patriarchal tropes.
The script analyzes them through Margo’s subjective standpoint, as a mother ensuring a good life for her child, while using her intellect and imagination to craft an attention-grabbing experience. That draws a parallel with her father’s scripted fights as a pro-wrestler, furthering the show’s musings about the cost of fame and its lingering weight. Yet, it also reveals a liberating aspect of storytelling where she finds emotional freedom to craft an alternate world, while otherwise pitted against a man who’s both entitled and a coward.
Thaddea Graham, Greg Kinnear, Nicole Kidman, Marcia Gay Harden, Rico Nasty, and Lindsey Normington star as secondary characters who appear solely through their relationship with the central trio. That offers a lot more room to flesh out Margo, Shayanne, and Jinx’s transformative journeys, analyzing their fears, attachment styles, and expectations about themselves. Most of it involves them trying to outgrow their past versions, while going through often unexpected ups and downs. The script excels when dealing with the resulting emotional roller coaster, leading the show to be as gripping as it ends up being.
Yet, it falls short in dealing with Margo’s intricate experience as a woman who finds herself in a string of unforeseen battles. Her and Shayanne’s characters also feel far less irate than they should be in many situations, where their rage feels warranted as a focal point instead of their attempts to pacify a situation. While the show captures the overwhelming nature of their despair, it could have been better with heightened moments that capture them behaving unlike how they’re expected to. Apart from that, Graham’s character feels two-dimensional for someone who spends such a long time on screen and for an actress who can clearly work with far more demanding material.
Still, there’s plenty of charm in the show’s sustained dramedy tone, backed by a naturalistic style of direction that deftly captures some of its most painful moments, when the characters are at their loneliest points. It also offers some of the finest showcases of Elle Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer’s talents, whose grounded performances root this trope-based narrative firmly in real life, making it all feel lively, bittersweet, and surprisingly real.
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