Pretty Red Dress | |
---|---|
Directed by | Dionne Edwards |
Written by | Dionne Edwards |
Produced by | Georgia Goggin [1] |
Starring |
|
Cinematography | Adam Scarth |
Edited by | Andonis Trattos |
Music by | Brijs |
Production companies |
|
Distributed by | BFI Distribution [2] |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 110 minutes [4] |
Country | United Kingdom [4] |
Language | English [4] |
Box office | £48,105 (US$58,659) as of 5 July 2023 [3] |
Pretty Red Dress is a 2022 British drama film written and directed by Dionne Edwards. It follows the story of a family of three (father, mother and teenage daughter) after the father is released from prison, and while the mother is auditioning for the part of Tina Turner in a musical. A red dress bought for the part becomes central to the plot. [4] The film is soundtracked to Turner's various hit songs. [4]
Candice picks up her partner Travis from prison when he is released on parole after a year inside. As soon as he gets in the car, Candice receives a call from her agent to say she has an audition for a role as Tina Turner in a musical. During the journey home, she explains that their teenage daughter, Kenisha, has been threatened with expulsion from school due to her behaviour. Travis meets up with his older brother, Clive, and his friends. [5] Clive offers him a job in his restaurant. One of the other men offers more of the alternative type of work, which presumably led to imprisonment. He declines both jobs.
Looking for an outfit for Candice's audition, the couple see a red dress in a shop window which they like. When they discover its price of £279, which they cannot afford, the shop agrees to hold it for 24 hours. Travis asks Clive about the job offer; the original job has gone, but a kitchen porter role is available, which Travis takes. He buys the dress, which Candice wears and is complimented on during the audition as she progresses to the next stage. Travis becomes fetishistically obsessed with the dress, and tries it on himself. He applies lipstick, then Kenisha returns early from school. He hastily changes out of the dress but doesn't remove the lipstick. The next time he puts the dress on, Candice returns to find him wearing it. He says he was just "messing about" and wanted to "show [her] later". She takes a photo on her phone, whereupon he tries to wrestle the phone from her to delete it.
Travis finally tears the dress while donning it. It's the day before Candice's next audition, and he can't find a repairer to do a same-day job, so he buys off Kenisha to say she damaged it. At work, Clive sees that Travis is wearing women's underwear when he bends down for something, and it is revealed that he also put on women's clothing when a teenager. Kenisha tells her friend Cicely, who swears on her life not to tell anyone, that her dad sometimes wears her mum's clothes. [6] Kenisha had asked her mum how to approach a boy she fancied, but when her parents see her apparently being intimate with Cicely, Candice assumes it was her rather than a boy to whom she was referring.
At school, Kenisha is taunted for having a supposedly gay father, attacks one of the teasers, and is sent home. Candice blames Travis for Kenisha becoming a lesbian and for her behaviour at school, and asks him to move out and take the dress with him. In a park, Travis changes into the dress and parades in front of four men, who beat him up. In a meeting at the school with both parents to discuss whether Kenisha should be expelled, Travis admits to cross-dressing, says that Kenisha's behaviour is all his fault, and promises to make things right. Kenisha is given one last chance. Candice does not get the part in the musical, but instead forms a Tina Turner cover band. She and Travis get back together. Travis proposes to her and she accepts.
The film premiered at the BFI London Film Festival on 9 October 2022 and was released in the UK and Ireland on 16 June 2023. [2] [3] [7] [8]
The film grossed $23,347 across 44 screens in the United Kingdom on its opening weekend, and a total of $58,659 within 20 days of release in that territory. [3]
Critics' reviews were mostly positive, with an 84% approval rate on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 25 reviews, and average rating of 6.9/10. [1] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 71 out of 100 based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. [9]
In a 4-star review for The Guardian , Peter Bradshaw made it his "film of the week" and summarized that the three lead actors gave "terrific performances" to "match this tender drama about masculinity". [8] Writing for The Independent , Clarisse Loughrey described Alexandra Burke's film debut as "one of the smartest music-to-movies leaps in recent history". [10] Though in a 3-star review she also said "what could be truly radical here feels diluted by the film’s more practical efforts to market itself as feel-good fare", but praised the production: "Edwards has shown real confidence with her camera, in how seamlessly her scenes blend from reality and into the quasi-musical space inside Travis and Candice's heads." [10] The Guardian's Mark Kermode also gave a 4-star review in which he praised the cast and Edwards' direction, writing "Pretty Red Dress revels in the power of music to elevate the everyday; to connect us with our emotional lives, reminding us that while things may not always be harmonious, it is possible to dance to different beats without losing your footing." [11]
Year | Event | Award | Nominee | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2023 | British Independent Film Awards | Best Supporting Performance | Alexandra Burke | Nominated | [12] |
Breakthrough Producer | Georgia Goggin | Nominated | |||
Munich Film Festival | CineVision Award – Best Film by an Emerging Director | Dionne Edwards | Nominated | [13] | |
Seattle International Film Festival | Grand Jury Prize – Best Feature Film | Nominated | [14] |
Tina Turner was a singer, songwriter, and actress. Known as the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", she rose to prominence as the lead singer of the husband-wife duo Ike & Tina Turner before launching a successful career as a solo performer.
Pretty Woman is a 1990 American romantic comedy film directed by Garry Marshall, from a screenplay by J. F. Lawton. The film stars Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, and features Héctor Elizondo, Ralph Bellamy, Laura San Giacomo, and Jason Alexander in supporting roles. The film's story centers on Hollywood escort Vivian Ward and wealthy businessman Edward Lewis. Vivian is hired to be Edward's escort for several business and social functions, and their relationship develops during her week-long stay with him. The film's title Pretty Woman is based on the 1964 song "Oh, Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison. The original screenplay was titled “3,000,” and was written by then-struggling screenwriter J. F. Lawton.
What's Love Got to Do with It is a 1993 American biographical film based on the life of American singer-songwriter Tina Turner. Directed by Brian Gibson and written by Kate Lanier from a uncredited story draft by the late Howard Ashman, based on Tina's 1986 autobiography I, Tina, it stars Angela Bassett as Tina and Laurence Fishburne as her abusive husband Ike Turner.
The Princess Diaries is a 2001 American coming-of-age comedy film produced by Walt Disney Pictures, directed by Garry Marshall, and written by Gina Wendkos. Based on Meg Cabot's 2000 young adult novel of the same name, it stars Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews, with a supporting cast consisting of Héctor Elizondo, Heather Matarazzo, Mandy Moore, Caroline Goodall, and Robert Schwartzman. The story follows Mia Thermopolis (Hathaway), an American teenager who learns she is heir to the throne of a European kingdom. Under the tutelage of her estranged grandmother (Andrews), the kingdom's reigning queen, Mia must choose to either claim the throne she has inherited or renounce her title permanently.
Mark Kermode is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter, author and podcaster. He is the co-presenter, with Ellen E. Jones, of the BBC Radio 4 programme Screenshot and co-presenter of the film-review podcast Kermode & Mayo's Take, alongside long-time collaborator Simon Mayo. Kermode is a regular contributor to The Observer, for which he was chief film critic between September 2013 and September 2023.
Taking Off is a 1971 American comedy film, directed by Miloš Forman. It tells a story of an average couple in the suburbs of New York City, who, when their teenage daughter runs away from home, connect with other parents of vanished children and learn something of youth culture.
Michelle Keegan is an English actress, known for her roles as Tina McIntyre in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street and Sergeant Georgie Lane in the BBC drama series Our Girl. Keegan has also starred as Kate Thorne in Ten Pound Poms, Tina Moore in the biopic Tina and Bobby, Erin Croft in Sky Max comedy Brassic and Maya Stern in Fool Me Once.
Bride Wars is a 2009 American romantic comedy film directed by Gary Winick and written by Greg DePaul, June Diane Raphael, and Casey Wilson. Two childhood best friends, who have made many plans together for their respective weddings, turn into sworn enemies in a race to get married first.
Unicorn Store is a 2017 American fantasy comedy-drama film directed and co-produced by Brie Larson. It stars Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Joan Cusack, Bradley Whitford, Karan Soni, Mamoudou Athie, Mary Holland and Hamish Linklater.
Lady Macbeth is a 2016 British period drama film directed by William Oldroyd and produced by Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly. Written for the screen by Alice Birch, it is based on the 1865 novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov. It stars Florence Pugh, Cosmo Jarvis, Paul Hilton, Naomi Ackie and Christopher Fairbank. The plot follows a young woman who is stifled by her loveless marriage to a bitter man twice her age.
Courtney Hadwin is an English singer-songwriter. She rose to fame by competing prominently on the first season of ITV's The Voice Kids UK 2017 and the 13th season of the NBC competition show America's Got Talent (AGT) the following year. Her latter audition went viral. By the time of her second performance in 2018 on the first live TV broadcast of AGT that season, the video of her audition had been viewed "over 200 million" times, according to show host Tyra Banks as she introduced Hadwin.
The Bisexual is a comedy-drama television series created by Desiree Akhavan and Rowan Riley and starring Akhavan, Maxine Peake, and Brian Gleeson. The series, a co-production between British television network Channel 4 and American streaming service Hulu, debuted on 10 October 2018 in the United Kingdom and on 16 November 2018 in the United States.
In Fabric is a 2018 British horror film written and directed by Peter Strickland, and starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hayley Squires, Leo Bill and Gwendoline Christie. The film follows a haunted red dress as it torments various owners.
The Starling is a 2021 American fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Theodore Melfi and written by Matt Harris. The film stars Melissa McCarthy, Chris O'Dowd, Timothy Olyphant, Kim Quinn, Skyler Gisondo, Loretta Devine, Ravi Kapoor, Daveed Diggs, Rosalind Chao, Laura Harrier, and Kevin Kline.
Saint Maud is a 2019 British psychological horror film written and directed by Rose Glass in her feature directorial debut. The film stars Morfydd Clark as a religious private carer who becomes dangerously fixated with saving the soul of her patient. Jennifer Ehle, Lily Frazer, Lily Knight, Marcus Hutton, Turlough Convery and Rosie Sansom appear in supporting roles.
In the Earth is a 2021 science fiction psychological horror film written and directed by Ben Wheatley. The film stars Joel Fry, Reece Shearsmith, Hayley Squires, Ellora Torchia, John Hollingworth, and Mark Monero.
Men is a 2022 British folk horror film written and directed by Alex Garland. It stars Jessie Buckley as a widowed woman who travels on holiday to a countryside village but becomes disturbed and tormented by the strange men in the village, all portrayed by Rory Kinnear. The film was released in the United States on 20 May 2022 by A24 and in the United Kingdom on 1 June 2022 by Entertainment Film Distributors. It received generally positive reviews, though its narrative approach received some criticism.
Hold Me Tight is a 2021 French drama film written and directed by Mathieu Amalric, based on the play Je reviens de loin by Claudine Galéa. It stars Vicky Krieps as Clarisse, a woman who runs away from home for reasons that aren't immediately clear. The film premiered in the Official Selection at the 74th Cannes Film Festival on 14 July 2021.
Francis Lovehall is a Jamaican actor based in London.
The Great Escaper is a 2023 biographical comedy-drama film directed by Oliver Parker, written by William Ivory, and starring Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson. It is based on the true story of 90-year-old British World War II Royal Navy veteran Bernard Jordan who "broke out" of his nursing home to attend the 70th anniversary D-Day commemorations in France in June 2014.