Review: The Polly Principle

The Polly Principle by Davina Stone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



View all my reviews

How to Build A Girl (2020)

                                      

                     https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4193072/mediaviewer/rm4068719873 

Where to start with this film?

This film was written by the prodigy that is Caitlin Moran, not a prodigy like Freddie Mercury but a literary prodigy. A person whose words make any situation feel like it could happen at home and you're experiencing it with them. 

Set in the harsh post-Thatcherist Wolverhampton city of North England you see a teenage whose words flow from her like a running tap. The main character played by the American actress Beanie Feldstein is a vibrant northerner in the 90s seeking an outlet and finding it in the intoxicating of watching and reviewing bands. With a vibrant red hairstyle, a cabaret-style outfit and her pen and notepad Beanie steal the screen with a character that I would have loved to be friends with at school. To be a product of that circumstance but finding some starlight to raise herself up, we need all of this. 

The songs sung by Alfie Allen adds to the tone brought by the early 1990s and 1980s music scene and with musical cameos from the Manic Street Preachers you may watch the film waiting for an instruction manual on how to fit in but you leave with an added emotion and vague instructions (as if they were in in french but the pictures can help you anyway).

Despite the book of which the film is based was released six years ago we can't but hope that Caitlin Moran has enough words to encapsulate similar characters as I feel I am not alone in saying these "real" characters allow similarities for the average person and this is what movies should be showing.

Not the pristine white, blonde and skinny girl who has it hard because she is dating the wrong hot person.

We need stories about the working class, the non- average body size, the non-white person. 

So I invite movie and tv companies to find books that exhibit stories of people whom need stories to be told and make them into films. They don't have to be titanic sized blockbusters but as you have the money to promote important messages in the unsure times use it wisely.

This all leads me to give one recommendation:

For any girl, any feminist, any person who is currently finding out who they are, take note because the moral of finding yourself is expressed clearly at the epilogue of this movie. Make errors and learn from mistakes, or just carry make them and wear them on the brim of your awesome hat because in the end all of these things build yourself.

As a twenty-something student, I am still trying to figure themself out and I wish this book had been known to me when I was younger as it may have helped me accept myself. I write this while listening to Lady Gaga's "Born this way" and can't help feel this sums up the movie, it doesn't fit the culture or the time of the film, however, it sums up the fight for people who don't have the privilege as the film said. Yet, as we live only our one life we shouldn't waste that privilege with not living our moments to the extent. Though maybe not the extent lived by the alter ego of the main character, Dolly Wilde.

High Note (2020)

                                           https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9308382/

During this uneasy time of dread left by the Corona outbreak, this film has shed a little ray of light on my monotonous life. Tracee Ellis Ross gives a performance which seems to truly reflect her life off of the screen; a woman who is famous and relies little on men. This both in her character and her real-life makes her a role model to anyone who wants to confirm to everyone else and themselves that being alone does not mean you are lonely and it is okay.

The soundtrack alone would be a reason as to why you want to watch this film featuring original music for the film as well as songs by Sam Cooke (covered at various points throughout the movie), Phantom Planet (used as a meet-cute) and the legendary Aretha Franklin. However, this does not lay a finger on the soul produced when Tracee starts singing. I tend to determine good music by goosebumps or gut feelings and I got both. It barely took a sec of singing to give a taste of awe in my mouth and a feeling of intoxication made by those notes. If Tracee were to make music, with the crackle and pop given by vinyl I surely would believe that Tracee was an original soul train singer. But along with Tracee, there were the amazing songs sung by Kelvin Harrison Jr. The evolution of his character's singing character may be mimicking his very own as surely with a performance like this we would be asking for a demo very soon.

As a movie this was what I wanted for a music film:

- There was a harmonising of characters (not just musically) which helped with the magnitude of emotions felt on screen making us feel them too.

- Not defining to a single genre. Those looking for romance would find this between Kelvin Harrison Jr and Dakota Johnson making a connection needed to tick this box yet, it would not fully clarify the film to be a romance. The same goes for if the film were to be classed as a comedy or a drama. This film is a happy blended of necessary labels need to make this film interesting and to add texture to the plot. 

- It is not totally predictable. Some of it is predictable however, there are definite twists that would not be obvious unless you were watching the film under an easter egg magnifying glass.

Overall, I would recommend this film (and did as soon as I finished it) to anyone wanting a joy-filling film for people interested in nearly any type of film. With cameos from the likes of Eddie Izzard and Diplo and including minor roles from June Raphael and Bill Pullman. This is a big strive for highlighting race, gender and age inequality seen in Hollywood and the music industry as well as society as a whole. This film is deliverance for multiple voices needed to be heard and the women who wrote and directed this film hit them all on the head, so now we just need to listen (and watch).

Thor: Ragnorok (2017)

I am a large fan of Comic Books which you might have already gathered from my previous entireties, and so far I have seen every Thor film at the cinema and why should the third Thor film be any different. If it has a Chris as the actor and is a Marvel film I will definatly watch it.
And, it was definatly the correct choice ingoing to see it, I was pretty dubious over seeing on the movie poster that Thor did not have long hair anymore however, he still remained the sexy god of Thunder which we all know and love.
The premise of the film is quite a direct follow on from Thor 2 in the fact that Loki didn't actually die and he banished Odin and essentially took his place, enjoying being a trickster to which he is essentially the god of.
But, hold on a moment their not so perfect family might be more of a less perfect family after-all as it seems that one female relative has come for destruction and will not leave or let anyone get in her way, to get to that eventual aim: the destruction of Val Halla.
With the introduction of Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson, best known for Veronica Mars and Dear White People) as a girl with a mission to level up in a world based on meritocracy and with a ruler who obviously is more Machiavelli than Machiavelli himself (Jeff Goldblum, best known for Jurassic Park) and the return of some familiar characters.
Enjoying the Easter Eggs directing to another Marvel films and the end-credit clip, made it even more special than most Marvel films yet.

Plus, to sum it up there is a definite edge of the 80s from colour schemes and outfits to the clothing and makeup, makes a brilliant accreditation to the amazing director Taika Waititi (Best know for What We Do In The Shadows).

I rate this amazing film 17/20.

War of the Planet of the Apes (2017)

If you haven't watched the previous two films you may miss a few things but not many the best recap can be said mainly by this quote by Ernest Hemmingway
"All things truly wicked start from innocence"
except with the knowledge that it wasn't innocence which carried on the war between man and ape. There were truly cryable moments and hilarious moment with introduction of a new Ape only named in self-reference as "Bad Ape" as that is what humans used to shout at him when he was in the zoo.
For those who wondered if the Apes were using proper sign-language like I did at the start, they are in fact using ASL (American Sign Language) to which I started to learn despite being English (picked it up from American TV shows) which to me felt a great achievement as I understood quite a bit of the conversations between Apes.
With Woody Harrelson being the featuring villain made it a new attitude I felt towards him as an actor as he tends to play the same or similar role and by taking this role he definatley shows that he is bridging out a bit.

I rate this terrific drama a 17/20.
 

Spiderman: Homecoming (2017)

Well, me and my siblings all went to this and well me and my sister-in-law thoroughly enjoyed the topless version of Tom Holland.
With this reboot there comes a new actor as mentioned before, a new sidekick which often didn't really occur before in the Andrew Garfield reboot and the original Tobey Maguire trilogy. However, you do see a nice plot set-up for the next film which sees Zendaya whose character is Michele reveal her nickname is actually MJ. Which previously was played by Kirsten Dunst.
This time Michael Keaton plays the villain, instead of the good guy (See Batman 1989), Tony Stark plays the replacement father figure like Uncle Bens should be (not the rice company) and extremely young Aunt May.
I love the special effects, the new Spidey suit gadgets and explotions.
I rate this a 18/20.
 

Power Rangers (2017)

I might be biased in this but I thought the film was really good. However, as a child I was not allowed to watch the TV show as my brother after watching it proceeded to try being a power ranger on the playground and to be honest I did the same with Totally Spies, anyway.

 

So this to me seemed a really awesome origin story and to be honest the Red Ranger was pretty cute and that was a hilarious prank which he set up. Elizabeth Banks plays Rita Repulsa brilliantly to which a role I had imagined would not suit her as she plays often quite preppy characters.

 

For those who don't know,

The film follows the plot of a group of five teenagers who all end up detention together, for various reasons, and eventually all meet up at a quarry, fall in, find Power Ranger quartz and come into powers which take time to truly master.

 

I rate this film a 17/20.