Wow, what are you doing re-blogging for the second time in a month(?). Is this your official grand return? Honestly, no. I’ve been hit with a cold. A novel idea after 18 months of bliss, it’s not even knocking me down that much, it’s just a tad inconvenient and would be discourteous if I were to go and watch a movie. I also didn’t have the desire to fork out £50 to watch Palace vs Brighton, so here we are instead. I’ll review two films today.

Everyone’s Talking About Jamie

Maybe my general indifference (or worse) towards Everybody’s Talking About Jamie was damned from the start. I’d heard some average reviews from those I trusted and more importantly, I’d seen it at the West End by chance only a couple of weeks before, so had a solid basis to compare it to. To make things even worse, it had only been a week since I’d watched a musical which was one of my favourite films of the year. But I had hope. Unlike the masses, I enjoyed the similarly corny The Prom the previous year, so I went in with an open mind. Was it any good? No, not really.

Jamie New is a Sheffield based boy who on his sixteenth birthday is given a pair of heels from his mother. From a Northern working class area, Jamie dreams of nothing more than performing as a drag queen, much to the disapproval of his father, played by Finchy from the office. (If this sounds like a shit Billy Elliot, there is a fairly simple reason for that). The rest of the movie is two hours of self discovery and feel-good corniness that you’d expect, culminating in Jamie wanting to wear a dress to prom. Mentored by Hugo, the former drag queen Loco Channelle (Richard E. Grant), he has to find his voice. I know, the plot sounds a bit derivative, but it’s a fair summary. It’s not exactly Inception, but whatever. It’s a corny feel good film.

So, what did I like about it? Max Harwood who plays Jamie does a solid enough job, and one or two of the songs are earworms. There are a couple of humorous and emotional moments but unfortunately, the film falls flat on many notes.

Firstly, the problem is that it feels like a stage play. The dialogue which felt corny (but forgivable) on the stage was kept fully in tact for the musical. In the first and last scenes especially, this doesn’t really work as the dialogue was just dreadful. The director wasn’t brave enough to do any show don’t tell. Lots of Jamie’s mother’s scenes are with her friend Rae, where she just says what is going on. Yes, do this on the stage, with limited resources, but please on a big screen, show don’t tell. Oh, what is happening and how does this character feel? It doesn’t matter, I’ll just say it directly so any popcorn munching, fuel stockpiling idiot can work it out…

The scenes were set up more often than not like the stage play. The song “You are beautiful” is a carbon copy, and that’s fine. It’s just not imaginative. The main problem I had with the songs, is that they didn’t feel like they were being sung, but more that they were dubbed. There were actually a couple of times where I noticed the audio go out of sync with the lips, in a musical. Oh, come on.

Actually, the main moment I saw this was the emotional crux of “He’s my boy”, a song where the mother can thrive, but there was so much going on in the screen, that you couldn’t focus on what a quietly reflective moment this was. The mother really was screwed. Her important moments, such as selling her necklace and letting go of a past relationship were totally scrubbed from the film, so much so that by the time we get her pay-off we have forgotten she’s there.

One more complaint, then I’m almost done, and this is probably my biggest one. Richard E Grant’s casting as Loco Chanelle was cheap. He felt overly camp for the sake of it. If you didn’t like James Corden in The Prom, then surely you should be really upset with Grant for this. With the rise of Ru Paul’s Drag Race in the UK, it seemed odd they couldn’t find an actual drag-queen for this role and that would have felt far more appropriate as Grant didn’t quite hit the right notes in my opinion. His song about the AIDS crisis was a sensitive moment (at the expense of a rather humorous dramatic song from the stage play), although maybe after the fantastic It’s A Sin came out on channel 4 this year, it may have lost some of it’s impact. Albeit, younger audiences won’t have watched It’s A Sin, so maybe the comment is more fussy than anything.

Really, my problem was that the film didn’t get anywhere. Most of the kids seemed cool with Jamie in a dress, apart from one and that gets resolved far too quickly in the end. The mother doesn’t do anything. Jamie wears the dress he’s always wanted without many obstacles apart from a teacher, and his big issue, his father Finchy, doesn’t even get resolved. This is a stage problem as much as anything, but I guess the whole story comes across as a bit stagnant at times. Again, it doesn’t matter because it’s a light hearted musical, and I don’t really care that much.

Summary

A star turn from Max Harwood as Jamie doesn’t stop this film disappointing. Questionable sound editing, casting of Richard E Grant, and directorial choices left me feeling flat. Still, if you’re not as picky as me and want an easy feel good musical film, watch it. If not, why did you even bother reading this review. [Grade: D]. Better than Cats.

ETAJ is available for free on Amazon Prime

The Green Knight

I went to my Curzon having just seen a Pompey draw with Charlton and John Marquis miss a sitter, so I was already fairly tired. Therefore, I can say with full confidence, that if you want a high octane, sword fighting movie to wake you up, this isn’t the one for you.

Gawain (Dev Patel) is the nephew of the king of the town. He has never been that close with him, but one day, the King extends an olive branch. As they all sit down to their christmas dinner, a weird tree knight comes in and challenges a night to his game. They strike him, and one year later, they go to the green church and he strikes them back. For some reason, Gawain takes on this challenge, gets rattled and goes for the head. Of course, this was a devious trick from the tree god who survives the beheading, meaning a year later Gawain needs to go on a quest to meet his end.

The story is based on a Middle-English poem called Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and seems relatively faithful. By this, I mean there are lots of random scenes which aren’t linked thrown together to look like a narrative movie. I really struggled to understand the point of some of these scenes, and the thematic consistency was loose at best. In the end, I did get the characters enough and there is a narrative in the last 20 minutes which felt much stronger and which was probably the best part of the film. Maybe the lack of narrative structure made it tougher to understand why our lead character was so willingly walking to his death.

While the story leaves you wanting more, the film looks and sounds brilliant. The cinematography is wonderful, with a vibrant green and an eerie grey both setting the moods at different times. It’s slightly experimental at times, but most of the things it goes for are brilliant. I particularly liked the scene with the giants which is much more atmospheric than I’d expect for such an independent film.

The soundtrack was also divine. The primarily ominous strings put together by Daniel Hart were subtle, but foreboding as we were being lead to our heroes demise. It really played into this natural, almost empty atmosphere.

Between the two of these, this film is an essential piece to watch at the cinema. I’m not sure how well it will translate into home viewing, as the atmosphere may become a bit lost. The pacing is pretty slow, which works, but it means that it requires a bit more focus.

Otherwise, the film is generally well acted. Dev Patel gives it a good go in an understated performance. His face says an awful lot, especially during the last 20 minutes where he says very little and his face does most of the acting. The maturing of the character can be seen in a way that a less capable actor would have struggled with.

Summary

A well acted, beautiful slow film, what The Green Knight may lack in a coherent, tight narrative, it makes up for in an eerie, atmospheric piece which is much better viewed on the big screen. [Grade: B] B

The Green Knight is available for free on Prime and is currently on a limited cinema run.