It should be good but it isn't. People will want to love this film and ultimately that's what will carry it. I tried to work out why this film is so flat, hollow that is strangely emotionless. The story and sentiment is 20 years out of date. It is problematic on many levels. I wonder who this film is for? It is more a cheap Billy Elliot knock off than a fabulous film of identity and dreams.
Jamie the character just isn't very likeable. Rather than being a battle for dreams and identity, the character and attitude is fully formed from the very beginning and it instead comes across a self-centred and selfish. Jamie's character doesn't blossom over the duration of the film, he is already there as a full power drag queen. His amateur debut show would give a RuPaul All Stars contestant a run for their money. Coming 'out' as a drag queen, with the commercial, mainstream success of drag through channels such as the likes of RuPaul and the drag Insta stars is simply out of date in 2021 perhaps a period piece in late 90s would be more convincing, but this simply misses the beat. When the film does grapple with something interesting it is either rushed, brushed aside or oddly flat.
From the beginning the stereotypical 'bully' is already put in place and casts no shadow over Jamie. Jamie is already fierce. The story of the bully could have been more interesting - he too is grappling with self identity, there are glimmers of the character's story , but is pretty much left as a cardboard cutout who has a fully story turn around within 15 seconds of the end. Because the character was never developed, the confrontation by Priti is flat and actually comes across as a ferocious attack from Priti as a result. The film is all the worse for hinting at these ideas but then not doing anything with them. Another missed beat. The drama of making Jamie walk down a corridor with badly drawn eyebrows is flat. It isn't a big deal. It felt like there needed to be a humiliation moment in the film at this point and they simply couldn't think of one. No one would care. Sarah Lancashire's song sat in the kitchen is wonderful until it cuts to Jamie rather than stay with Lancashire and breaks the intimacy. The sequence of looking at reflections in windows of Jamie's relationship with his father is a fantastic approach, but let down by that relationship not developing or not emphasising it forever broken. It just falls flat as the father as another stereotype.
The standout sequence is Loco Chanelle's look back at her life through old VHS tapes. Now that was the movie I would rather have seen.
Jamie the character just isn't very likeable. Rather than being a battle for dreams and identity, the character and attitude is fully formed from the very beginning and it instead comes across a self-centred and selfish. Jamie's character doesn't blossom over the duration of the film, he is already there as a full power drag queen. His amateur debut show would give a RuPaul All Stars contestant a run for their money. Coming 'out' as a drag queen, with the commercial, mainstream success of drag through channels such as the likes of RuPaul and the drag Insta stars is simply out of date in 2021 perhaps a period piece in late 90s would be more convincing, but this simply misses the beat. When the film does grapple with something interesting it is either rushed, brushed aside or oddly flat.
From the beginning the stereotypical 'bully' is already put in place and casts no shadow over Jamie. Jamie is already fierce. The story of the bully could have been more interesting - he too is grappling with self identity, there are glimmers of the character's story , but is pretty much left as a cardboard cutout who has a fully story turn around within 15 seconds of the end. Because the character was never developed, the confrontation by Priti is flat and actually comes across as a ferocious attack from Priti as a result. The film is all the worse for hinting at these ideas but then not doing anything with them. Another missed beat. The drama of making Jamie walk down a corridor with badly drawn eyebrows is flat. It isn't a big deal. It felt like there needed to be a humiliation moment in the film at this point and they simply couldn't think of one. No one would care. Sarah Lancashire's song sat in the kitchen is wonderful until it cuts to Jamie rather than stay with Lancashire and breaks the intimacy. The sequence of looking at reflections in windows of Jamie's relationship with his father is a fantastic approach, but let down by that relationship not developing or not emphasising it forever broken. It just falls flat as the father as another stereotype.
The standout sequence is Loco Chanelle's look back at her life through old VHS tapes. Now that was the movie I would rather have seen.