LevelFILM VOD/Digital Release Review - Mr. Malcolm's List

Best friends Upper-Class Julia Thistlewaite (Zawe Ashton) and Preacher's Daughter Selina Dalton (Freida Pinto) have been close friends since meeting as little girls in boarding school many years ago. Julia was at the school based on family standing while Selina attended due to the grace of a benefactor. Their relationship has always been a bit unbalanced. A fact that Julia keeps close to the surface and is always willing to subtly reference. It's England in 1818 this season's most eligible bachelor Mr. Jeremiah Malcom (Sope Dirisu) search for a suitable bride is the talk of Noble society. Scandal hovers in the air of the rumored list of traits his perspective bride must possess. After a failed courtship with Mr. Malcolm that left Julia humiliated in public then later in the press she plots revenge. Recruiting her cousin  Lord Cassidy (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) who is also a friend of Mr. Malcom and Selina to act as bait. 

Class is the main driver in writer Suzanne Allain's screenplay adaptation of her novel. It's a series of events steeped in manners, rules, and protocols that the nobility have had ingrained in them since birth with the with the deemed worthy lower classes allowed to partake on a limited scale. The commoners having no access unless to serving as footmen or maids. The storyline is in the tradition of the classics with a winding and bumpy road to love and marriage at the centre. Director Emma Holly Jones keeps her lens focused almost exclusively on the main players giving the story a stage play feel. 

Freida Pinto is engaging as ever in the role of Selina. She is kind, and thoughtful possessing a strong sense of right from wrong, and willing to speak her mind. Zawe Ashton turn as the conniving Julia is the perfect foil to Selina seemingly the only one that cannot recognize Selina's qualities bring her more regard despite her rural upbringing. The Thistlewaite's main staff footman John (Divian Ladwa) and maid Molly (Sianad Gregory) bring the perspective of the commoners to the piece often with comedic results. Look for Ashley Park as Gertie Covington. She's Selina's cousin twice divorced loud and obnoxious with little or no filter. Just being related to Selina could derail all plans. But when on screen Park is a whirlwind that flips the proceedings upside down. 

The George IV pre-reign era is on full display in Mr. Malcom's List. Nobility rule, Military fight, the Gentry conduct business with the Clergy slotting in a notch below but still ahead of the working class. The trapping of wealth is on display from the methods of travel of the nobility, to their luxurious estates to even the bonnets that the women wear. Shot in Ireland the landscapes selected authentically represent the time. The other key elements of the time often categorized as the Regency period witty conversation and acute attention to manners including formal introductions are also key fabrics of the piece. Keep an eye out for the series of Regency Era journal cards sprinkled amongst the end credits. They serve as an epilogue giving nuggets on the fates of several main players. 

***1/2 Out of 4.

Mr. Malcolm's List | Emma Holly Jones | Ireland/ U.K./ U.S.A. | 2022 | 117 Minutes.

Tags: Regency Era, Noble Society, Social Season, Courting, Caricature, Revenge, Preacher's Daughter, Fourth Class Society, Caregiver, Dinner Party, Duplicity, Shooting, House Party Dancing, Orangerie, The Corn Laws.

Vertical Entertainment Film Review - Gone In The Night

Kath (Winona Ryder) and her boyfriend Max (John Gallager Jr.) are on a remote tree-lined road headed to a cabin in the woods that Max rented for a spontaneous weekend getaway. Early hints are dropped as Kath looks in the rear-view that she is concerned about getting older and is very conscious that her boyfriend is younger, carefree and has a different life experience. When the pair arrive another couple Grace (Brianne Tju) and Al (Owen Tague) are already occupying the space claiming that they had booked the cabin as well. Al wants no part of the new arrivals. Kath wants to turn around and leave but optimists Grace and Max thing the four can stay in the cabin for at least one night. Exhausted Kath goes to be early only to awake to find Max is missing. She locates Al outside as he distraughtly tells her that Grace and Max have run off together. 

The two themes of getting older and the fleetingness of time permeate the film. Previously divorced Kath is very aware of her age and how laborious things have gotten for her as the years advanced. She's a Botanist dating a former student making her a cliché she wants nothing to do with. Max unfocused, not working, and in Kath's reflective moments somewhat an embarrassment when interacting with her friends. But she is obsessed with finding out what happened in the cabin and learning the reason why he left her. As part of her investigation, she meets and gets to know Nicholas (Dermot Mulroney) the retired scientist cabin owner who provides contact information for Grace and agrees to ride shotgun on her quest to find answers. The atmosphere builds towards the sinister over mystery beginning with tracking Grace to an Underground club where the bouncer takes a look at Kath and won't let her in again raising Kath's age insecurities. The home screen on Grace's phone seems to show a deeper relationship with Max than expected setting the stage for multiple twists in the final act the majority of which find the mark. 

Winona Ryder is well cast as the anxious self conscious Kath. She deftly brings her characters' insecurities to the fore with the ever increasing age comments. Dermot Mulroney delivers a nuanced performance as Nicholas. He is a candidate for a debilitating disease that took his Father turning his scientific mind to search for a cure for himself and other current and future sufferers. The star of the piece is Brianne Tiu as Grace. She is brash, in your face confrontational, extremely comfortable in her skin and open with her sexuality. She is the anti-Kath revelling in the other's visible uncomfortableness whenever she catches a glimpse. 

Gone In The Night is a mystery where several characters take a villainous turn. Aging and how to delay or thwart it is the driver of the production and the main focus of multiple of the characters. Getting older is a burden that needs to be fought and battled against. The thought of doing it gracefully is not an option especially given the level of desperation displayed in the film and how an outlandish twist seems believable given the seething need to escape ones natural fate planted then encouraged to germinate in the narrative. 

*** Out of Four.

Gone In The Night | Eli Horowitz | U.S.A. | 2022 | 90 Minutes. 

Tags: Weekend Getaway, The Redwoods, Rental Cabin, Double Booking, Disappearance, Botanist, Divorce, Flashbacks, Genetic Nerve Disease, Transfusion Therapy, Volvo Station Wagon.