Director Jonathan Butterell’s thoroughly delightful blend of Billy Elliot and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is based on the Dan Gillespie Sells/Tom MacRae 2017 stage musical of the same name, which in turn is adapted from the 2011 television documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16, which profiled Jamie Campbell.
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| After Jamie (Max Harwood) gets a bit too aggressive with an eyebrow pencil, his best friend Pritti (Lauren Patel) graciously does her best to repair the damage. |
MacRae handles the script here, and Butterell also directed the play’s original Sheffield and West End productions, so there’s no question this film is faithful to their original vision. That’s important, given the subject’s sensitivity, which Butterell treats with respect. The result is joyous, poignant, uplifting, frequently amusing and — at times — emotionally shattering.
Which you’d expect, given that we’re talking about a teenager who wanted to come out as a drag queen, in a conservative, working-class community in Sheffield, England.
Butterell’s film is powered by an incandescent performance by star Max Harwood, in a frankly amazing acting and singing debut. There’s often something special about a talented actor’s debut screen role: Absent expectations and preconceived notions — it’s not as if we know anything about Harwood — it’s easier to embrace the notion that he is this character.
And he has absolutely no trouble handling choreographer Kate Prince’s inventively staged song-and-dance numbers. The first one — “And You Don’t Even Know It,” which establishes Jamie’s personality, hopes and dreams — is a true stunner.
Indeed, Butterell and all concerned have “opened up” the stage production quite imaginatively.
Musicals are, by nature, strange beasts; some seamlessly integrate the songs and production numbers into the narrative — Cabaret, most famously — while others simply interrupt the story. Jamie is one of the latter, although — to its credit — all the songs are so heartfelt, poignant or flamboyantly fun, that it’s easy to succumb to the film’s spirit.
With his dyed platinum blond pixie cut, gaudy accoutrements added to the mandated uniform, and aggressively frank personality, Jamie New (Harwood) is quite a presence at Mayfield High School. That rarely works in his favor, and he’s often targeted by mocking lads egged on by the sneering Dean (Samuel Bottomley).
He has one friend: the diminutive Pritti Pasha (Lauren Patel, in an equally strong acting debut), a studious Muslim who plans to become a doctor. She’s Jamie’s exact opposite: a shy, conservative girl who wouldn’t dream of wearing makeup, and hates being the center of attention. But — even though Butterell and MacRae don’t go there much — the hijab clearly has made her an outcast in this community, so of course she understands and sympathizes with Jamie’s isolation.
Despite the fact that it’s his own fault, given the way he behaves. Indeed, she’s his second staunchest advocate, forever encouraging him to embrace his ambitions, to “stop waiting for permission to be you.”
Jamie’s strongest champion is his mother, Margaret (Sarah Lancashire), who adores and defends her only child with the ferocity of a mother tiger. She long ago decided to accept him at face value, even at the cost of her marriage; this allowed Jamie a comfort zone within the confines of his home and yard, which has gotten him this far.
Lancashire delivers a warm, sensitively nuanced performance, and her third-act solo — “He’s My Boy” — is beyond poignant.
Jamie’s family unit also includes Margaret’s best friend Ray (Shobna Gulati), a feisty co-conspirator who has become something of a surrogate aunt. (Gulati is the sole actor here, who also was in the play’s original West End production.)
The film opens on Jamie’s 16th birthday, at which point — this being England — he’s essentially an adult. He therefore decides that he wants to wear a dress to the high school prom, which puts him in the cross-hairs of Miss Hedge (Sharon Horgan), his well-intentioned but misguided teacher.
She’s an intriguing character, and Horgan deftly handles the woman’s apparent contradictions. Although clearly liberal and progressive, and fairly tolerant of Jamie’s behavior — thus far — she’s also something of a wet blanket, insisting to her students that it’s smarter to focus on practical goals, rather than long-shot aspirations.
And, yes, Jamie’s aspirations are Out There. Wanting to wear a dress to prom is merely the warm-up; he also wants to make a stage debut as a drag queen. This brings him to the wonderfully cluttered shop run by aging drag queen Hugo Battersby (the always sensational Richard E. Grant). The store is, by far, production designer Jane Levick’s best set: filled with the minutia, bric-a-brac and treasures of a life lived quite unusually — and not always happily — by its owner.
His solo number — “This Was Me,” the only song new to this film adaptation — is a heartbreaking, VHS-hued glimpse of Hugo’s previous life, during the 1980s horror of London’s AIDS epidemic (which hits the right emotional button, in this age of LGBTQ oppression).
Grant is perfect in this role. As introduced, his sad gaze suggests a once vibrant spirit who has given up ever finding his bliss again … and who comes effervescently to life, when confronted by this 16-year-old tabula rasa eager to invent and embrace a new “stage personality.”
(And no, there’s absolutely nothing creepy or sexual about their developing relationship; it’s merely mentor and student.)
Ralph Ineson, finally, is — sadly — quite persuasive as Jamie’s long-estranged father: a bitter man who neither understands what “happened” to his son, nor has any desire to keep in touch. One quick flashback sequence, revealing an adolescent Jamie exploring his desires, is quite a gut-punch.
Although clearly a message movie, Butterell and MacRae don’t preach; the elements of tolerance, inclusiveness and anti-bullying are simply organic to the thoughtful story. The lessons are present for those willing to be swayed; at the same time, Jamie can be viewed simply as a rousing good time.
Definitely a keeper.
3 comments:
Okay, a four-star rating makes much more sense.
I read the review and thought you sounded like you enjoyed it far more than a typical three-star film, but then I thoughtt the same about Ready or Not…
Goodness, you must've checked it out quickly. The initial 3 star rating was a mistake, which I corrected as soon as I caught it a few hours later. Sometimes I miss my mind...!
I check your site when I wake up in the wee hours every Friday here on the east coast.
I never heard of the film, but I watched and enjoyed it last night. Again, you steered me to a wonderful film off my map. Great job and great review. Thank you!
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