Hamnet

At A-Level me and my best mate would call Shakespeare YG Shakes because of how well the man put pen to paper but now we should call him Freakspeare, he doesn't think I saw that hoop earring but I know what type of man you are William Very lovely film that delves into the devastating pain of losing a child and how a mother and father move forward from it. The fact that Shakespeare is a main character, and yet the film isn't just about him, is really admirable, since I imagine it would have been easy (and maybe tempting) to litter in 101 references to his works. I think the "to be or not to be" scene was a little on-the-nose, but that aside, Hamnet handled this aspect very well. The mystic aspects actually serve a narrative purpose — with Hamnet swapping places with Judith to trick Death, Agnes saying that she perceives undiscovered nations in Shakespeare's hands, and so on — and I especially appreciate this, since it doesn't feel like it was thrown in for its own sake. Having us learn along with Agnes how Shakespeare expressed his own grief through his work was a lovely touch, and the moment when she took the titular actor's hand at the end of the production with such a sense of awe was simply beautiful. Jessie Buckley as Agnes was a perfect fit — I can still hear her heart-wrenching cries as she mourns the death of her son, and see the pure disinterest towards her husband who was absent when Hamnet died. I need to watch more films with pure emotional turmoil wow