Damsel
The idea of a damsel in
distress who rises to the occasion rather than waiting for a prince to rescue
her is a fun idea that this film starring Millie Bobby Brown of Stranger Things
leans into. In an unspecified time and place that borrows from English history
and mythology, a struggling family offers their eldest daughter Elodie to the royal family to
marry a prince which seems fairytale enough till we -and she – learn the
terrible truth about what the marriage will mean. I should have said awful
truth really because the central conceit of the film is so unintentionally silly which
somewhat undermines the subsequently deadly serious proceedings resulting in an
uneven if enjoyable enough result.
The big twist happens
at the wedding ceremony whereby after they have been betrothed with blood, her
new husband chucks her down a crevasse where it turns out that many previous
royal brides have ended up to appease the wrath of a dragon whose children a
previous King slayed in cold blood. For some reason though when the throwing over
the edge happened, I could not take it seriously. I mean how is the succession
ever assured if princesses keep being literally thrown away moments after
marriage? And our evil dragon hunts them down by smelling the royal blood that
they have just been given by a cut on the hand. Does such a small amount of
blood really circulate so quickly around the body? Also does the dragon really
believe that all these women are royal daughters?
The narrative is also
very clumsy in placing obvious things exactly where they need to be for no good
reason. I know myself this is part of the storytelling process but it needs to either
be well presented or explained. Yet our heroine finds a handy cave full of
fireflies that can heal wounds across a gap she is just able to jump because
she has a knife from the earlier ceremony. There’s a useful crystal wall that
sits just beneath an opening in the cave. Despite their predicament previous incumbents
have sketched helpful clues on the cave walls.
Still, after a sluggish
opening, the film manages to gain some traction as Elodie deals with the perils
of being trapped underground with a dragon. It says something about the other
characters that the dynamic between hunter and prey is more interesting than Elodie’s
interaction with anyone else, partly due to Shohreh Aghdashloo’s excellent voice
work which breathes character into this creature. The dragon is very well realised visually
too and when it shoots fire it's got a real lava quality that makes this seem one of the screen's more dangerous dragons. The two play cat and mouse with each other and the results are tense and well
shot meaning you sort of forget the odd method by which they began. The ending
gives a suitable fiery climax albeit with an awkward redemption for our scaly antagonist
which sort of ignores all the things she has previously done. All three main
characters being female also adds a different tone albeit only by making the
male characters little more than set dressing.
The rest of the cast are unseen for the bulk of the film; Ray Winstone brings customary heft to the under written role of Elodie’s conflicted father, poor Nick Robinson gets very little to work with as Prince Henry who seems to have no opinion on the terrible thing he’s partaken in. There’s a good sisterly chemistry between Millie Bobby Brown and Brooke Carter as Floria whilst Angela Basset brings some fire to the role of Elodie’s stepmother. Robin Wright is evil enough as Isabelle though is another underserved character. Millie Bobby Brown herself is used to her characters suffering and is at her best when she goes full Die Hard though the role is not as suited to her as that of Enola Holmes. If you can get past the bizarre idea, Damsel is entertaining and sometimes exciting but with a little more script writing rigour could have been even better.
The Sidemen Story
For over ten years The
Sidemen, collectively and individually, have provided some of YouTube’s best
content and maintained consistently high views during a decade when other
personalities have come and gone. Their brand of challenges, games and
generally boisterous material may have started off mostly about football but
has expanded into all kinds of exploits. Nowadays goal scoring on a muddy field
and messing about in their house has been replaced by videos tilting for the
same ambition as Mr Beast. When I first heard about this Netflix documentary
I’d imagined it would be something of a vanity project whereas The Sidemen
Story has compiled a portrait of seven individuals who are very familiar to
anyone whose watched their stuff yet adding new perspectives that we didn’t
know. It may skip over some years but the essence of what makes The Sidemen so
successful – and a few of the hurdles along the way - is all contained in this
well produced film.
If you’ve never watched any of the Sidemen videos thinking they are just about football or sport then you might be surprised as just how varied content they produce. Amongst the best are the Hide and Seek videos which use the simple premise of them trying to find other YouTubers in an array of interesting locations from a mansion to the interior of a sports stadium to an area of London and beyond. They started their collaborations at the end of their teens and now approaching their thirties remain more popular than ever. Whichever way you slice the stats they are as huge as any other famous person you could mention and as the film points out their charity football match had more views that the Cup Final.
While unique as a seven-piece
group- most vloggers are individuals or less defined groups- The Sidemen have
also been at the vanguard of the move from television to YouTube for a younger
generation. Someone says in the film “TV is dead” and all of the success of the
group has been self-generated. Even when they released a Xmas single in 2022-
the film shows the chaotic promo campaign through London on an open topped bus-
it was wholly independent of any music business involvement.
The film starts to tell
their story though does make some chronological leaps that miss out the growth
of the brand, especially the merch (clothing, books), the early focus
primarily on football and the Sidemen Houses. Thus, we leap from 2014 when their success is becoming
bigger to 2017, the year of the iconic diss tracks. The definitive explanation
as to why KSI left and then drifted back is not quite here but it seems that
the anger in some of those videos, though using outrageously funny lines, was
real enough for a while. Yet the sting in the tail is that this fall out made
The Sidemen more popular than ever. You sense that the issue of KSI’s
popularity beyond The Sidemen – he is also a successful boxer and rapper- can sometimes be an
irritant amongst the others.
Each of the seven is
profiled briefly though with enough detail to show how they fit together
underlined by sequences where they are all chatting. The documentary
doesn’t flinch from also showing some of the harder moments along the way notably
Ethan’s mental health issues and the pressures that fame brings. Yet compared
to many who find themselves in the spotlight they seem to deal with it
gracefully. This may be because they are being themselves in the videos and as clips
here show and is always evident in the videos treat their fans with respect
and humour.
There’s some behind the
scenes footage which inevitably show that making these videos is tremendous fun and testimony
from friends, YouTube people and even Mr Beast himself. The results are
refreshingly honest, which I suppose is exactly what The Sidemen are.
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