The Christophers

I did not expect to like this as much as I did!! Spiritually similar to The Drama (in spite of the tonal differences)— both simple films that don't do anything groundbreaking, but provide such rich character study I can't help but adore them anyways ^_^ and also they're both films titled The [Noun] with posters featuring a white man on the left and a black girl on the right looking at each other in side profile. So they're basically the same movie when u think about it Ian McKellen obviously steals the show so hard there's nothing to even say about it, but I adored Michaela Coel too! I understand why other people might think her acting here is wooden, but I thought her choices and physicality felt very intentional! Her character is Meant to be rigid, someone who's talented at analyzing and copying art but not talented at creating original works because she has no muse (more on that in my friend's analysis that I liked so much it raised my rating half a star). Everything we know about the character perfectly matched the performance: she can't maintain a 'customer service mode' around Julian, she's openly exasperated with him and talks back to him even when she's supposed to be playing along and gaining his trust! She was voted out of a throuple, which to me indicates a great struggle to be intimate! She spends most of the movie resenting Julian for what he did to her in the past and resenting his kids for what they're doing to her now, and since 90% of her screentime is spent interacting with them, it makes perfect sense to me that she would be so tense around them!! And I think that's complimented by how she does in fact seem more relaxed in the few moments she's free of the situation, like at the start when she's working the food truck and how she talks on the call before she knows what the job entails, and the brief interactions she has with Owen and Esme at the end. I never felt like I was watching an actress that didn't know how to deliver lines, I felt like I was watching a deliberate portrayal of a woman that's not good at masking as she has to push through uncomfortable social situations. All that to say that I read her as autistic and thought it was great Other rapid-fire thoughts because I don't wanna yap too long: I like how quickly she was caught, thought the entire movie was gonna be about her lying and heisting in the background and enjoyed how it was not that. I usually hate James Corden but thought he was well cast in this role. Surprisingly memorable score, loved the shredding sequence. Ironic movie for Soderbergh to make before going full AI nutjob. That's all for now I'll see you all on #thechristopherstwt