Reviews - Damsel, The Sidemen Story

 

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 Sidemen versus KSI- real or fake?

It’s all been kicking off on YouTube since KSI left The Sidemen. Or is it really? OK some of you will be wondering what I’m talking about so here’s a short 101 on The Sidemen. They are football and gaming vloggers with a following of some 35 million subscribers. Though each have their own individual channels they also combine their efforts like the Power Rangers (but without powers) as The Sidemen. Since forming in 2013 they have become a global brand with a range of clothing, a best -selling book and enough popularity to fill a football stadium as they did for a charity match back in May. However where there were seven of them there are now six. KSI, the most popular and controversial of the group quit earlier this month after distancing himself from the others for some time. Since then- and it’s only a couple of weeks- so called diss track videos have been flying back and forth with the ferocity of a Game of Thrones battle sequence. I’d love to include one of these in this post but frankly they are just too near the knuckle (blogging is still a safer environment than vlogging). Whether or not you care about the falling out of people you’ve never heard of, what this is really about is the difference between what is real and what isn’t and whether the obvious fun both sides are having with this `split` is sending the wrong messages to their followers.