6/12 ForReel Score | 2/5 Stars

When you hear that Michelle Pfeiffer, Nicole Kidman, and Elle Fanning are all starring in the same series, it’s hard not to get excited. You have Fanning as an idealistic creative writing student, Pfeiffer is her emotionally immature mother, and Kidman an ex-pro series wrestler with a heart of gold - it starts to feel like it was tailor-made for a viewer like me. Apple and A24’s latest collaboration Margo’s Got Money Troubles wants you to “sink into the narrative like a hot bath,” but what it actually delivers is something far more lukewarm. On paper, it has all the right ingredients, so where does it all go wrong?

At the center of the story is Margo Millet, who’s brought to life by undeniably charming Elle Fanning. Margo sees her life as malleable, that it can always be changed or reworked with the flick of a pen. Often trying to reshape her life into something more meaningful than it often is. But that sense of control quickly unravels when she falls into the cliche of having an affair with her professor, Mark (Michael Angarano, Sky High) which results in an unplanned pregnancy. Despite pressure from nearly everyone in her life, including her mother Shayanne (Pfeiffer) who has firsthand knowledge of how hard single motherhood can be, Margo chooses to keep the baby. The decision is driven less by practicality and more by a deep, almost intangible longing for purpose.

Margo’s new reality hits her like a bus. Her fading creativity, mounting financial stress, and emotional exhaustion quickly mount into a world of self doubt. It’s here that the series finds its footing, ever so briefly. Offering flashes about postpartum strain and the isolating reality of raising a child alone. But just as quickly, it abandons this grounded perspective in favor of something softer and far less interesting. The introduction of sex work as Margo’s financial lifeline should be the show’s most provocative thread. Instead it’s rendered in a strangely sanitized, almost whimsical light. It’s portrayed more like performance art than a desperate survival gambit. Margo joins OnlyFans, but differentiates herself from the other creators and uses the platform to explore her writing skills. She asks men to send her dickpics, which she then inturn describes what they would look like as Pokemon or aliens, making big bucks detailing their blue veins and ooze attacks and turning the explicit into something abstract and detached. Tonally, it is all over the place. While the series deserves credit for refusing to shame sex work, it simultaneously avoids engaging with its real world complexities, sanding down any edges that might challenge the viewer.

Ironically, the most engaging elements come from the supporting cast. Margo’s estranged father Jinx (Nick Offerman, Parks and Rec) brings texture and unpredictability. Shayanne doesn’t come off any deeper than just a cautionary tale. She’s constantly reinventing herself, whether through questionable relationships or her sudden turn toward religion. Jinx, meanwhile, crashes back into Margo’s life like a disruptive force, a former pro wrestler clinging to his past while searching for purpose. His attempts at redemption feel both sincere and precarious. Even Kenny (Greg Kinnear, Little Miss Sunshine), Shayanne’s overly wholesome episcopalian boyfriend, adds a layer of quiet absurdity. Together, these characters create a world that feels lived-in and emotionally complex, which only makes it more frustrating that the series puts more time and thought is into contextualizing these characters rather than our female leads.

Margo’s Got Money Troubles is pleasant enough in the moment, like background music you don’t bother to skip. But for a series with this much to chew on, it never quite finds its voice. It’s the kind of show that would’ve thrived on Showtime in the early 2010s, but it lacks the structural clarity to really land. Never quite figuring itself out, drifting between tones and ideas without committing to any of them. There’s a sharper, more emotionally honest version of this story somewhere in this pastel mess, it just shouldn’t be this frustrating to find it.

Movie Review: "Margo's Got Money Troubles" Struggles To Find It's Voice