Everybody's Talking About Jamie

I can only image the ridiculously low score for this film is due to homophobia and general intolerance because it is way, way better than 5.6.

This is a hugely enjoyable film, with some fabulous performances from all of the cast. In these times where we seem to be going backwards in terms of tolerance, it's great to see such a positive film about identity and sexuality, of wanting to be different and showing relationships between people of such different backgrounds and origins.

Richard E Grant is absolutely fantastic as the old drag queen just as Max Harwood is as the young one. Love the relationships between Jamie and Pritti, Sarah Lancashire is great as always she always is and Shobna Gulati is a hoot.

I really hope that people look past the score here and read the glowing reviews of the films. Even as someone who is straight and who likes different music to this, I found this film to thoroughly entertaining .

This would definitely come code to home for lots of queer people. It was nice to see a British queer story that featured something that I related with.

It has a heart and is definitely feel good. I do think it's definitely tailored for a straight audience. It has a softness and digestible feel.

It's painfully northern (I'm northern). I think younger Northern people struggle to act, they all sound like they are in year 7 drama class. Obviously Sarah Lancashire is great and had such a deep feel to her character. She brought a lot. The lead...he's a good singer.

I think it's too long and the script is rough, it feels like a 40 year old has wrote teenage characters. Everything they say just sound so off. Aside from the dialogue I also felt like the story was strange. I think it seems very muddy. There is a internal conflict that comes of of absolutely nowhere right in the middle of the movie. Totally unwarranted to this character that we have watched for over an hour. It makes complete sense when explained but why they chose to place this in the middle of the movie without building to it, I have no idea. Another strange thing for me was the choice of dress at the end. It was like he went in granny's closet? Such a strange choice.

I'm glad movies like this are becoming more common and I want them to continue and become even better.

You can tell this was filmed in 2019. Jamie feels like a pre-pandemic LGBT movie musical, if ever there was one.

The heart and charm of the stage musical is not apparent in this adaptation. It feels like an ode to narcissism and self-obsession, rather than a tribute to self-expression. Maybe this film would have had resonance fifteen years ago, but it feels so out of sync with the current zeitgeist. The more it tries to be inspiring, the more on-the-nose and garish it becomes, and the more I want to crawl back into my metaphorical closet...

The main fault of this film is the direction. It lacks vision. It's trying to be a 2000s British feel-good movie one minute, then the next it's a parody of a Netflix teen drama. Either way, with the number of stereotypes it perpetuates, it feels like an LGBT story more concerned with pleasing its straight audience than its gay one. If it had rooted itself in a time and place - 2010 Sheffield - examined that culture, and honed in on the mother-son emotional centre, then it could have been something interesting.

It's not a bad film, per se. It just doesn't know what note it's trying to hit... But, alas, the doe-eyed beauty of Sarah Lancashire's performance broke my heart and Work of Art will always be that bop...

6/10.

Based on the West End musical of the same name, itself adapted from the BBC Three documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16, Everybody's Talking About Jamie is the latest jump from stage to screen. Produced in cooperation with the stage production's creative team, the film introduces the extraordinary Max Harwood as the titular Sheffield teen who battles prejudice to find his identity.

Jamie New is your average 16-year-old boy. He goes to high school, has to pass maths, spends time with his best friend... oh, and he enjoys crossdressing. His mother is the most supportive parent any gay kid could ask for but his father has given up on him completely. Mum can't bear to break her son's heart and covers for the neglect.

In his search for his drag persona, Jamie meets drag shop owner Hugo (the always fabulous Richard E. Grant), who once housed warrior queen Loco Chanelle in her blood red dress. Hugo takes Jamie under his frock to help this insecure lad unleash his inner divinity.

The film makes it clear from the get-go that the viewer is getting a musical, with the disclaimer: "This story really happened... and then we added the singing and dancing." Jonathan Butterell, of the original production, makes his feature film directorial debut here, with a screenplay by Tom MacRae from his own book. In the vein of other stage-to-screen adaptations this year, I've come to the conclusion that anything cut was done for good reason. It's noticeable here as a chunk of the original score is absent.

Harwood is a force not to be reckoned with in his very first role. A young star with the heart and the humor to embody such a complex but relatable character. His co-stars are no less talented. Lauren Patel plays Pritti, a studious young woman with a biting wit and all the best friend qualities a gay kid needs. Sharon Horgan really struts her stuff as the practical Year 11 instructor Miss Hedge. And while I'll sing the praises of Richard E. Grant until the end of time, the MVP goes to Sarah Lancashire, who, as Jamie's mother Margaret, has such raw emotional depth that'll bring tears, see "He's My Boy".

However, the film is not without its issues. While Jamie is a genuine delight, one can't shake the feeling that the filmmakers played this daring story too safe. There are points where provocativity could be more... well, provocative, but it's overshadowed by a constant fairy tale light, as if protecting the audience from the realities that come with seeking one's identity via crossdressing. This imbalance of reality vs fantasy causes an uneven tone.

Is it perfect? No. Is it a delight? Oh, most definitely. Sometimes that's all you need. I showered praise on Jamie at its Frameline premiere, but a rewatch in its limited theatrical release made me realize (likely thanks to the absence of a cheering crowd) the nitpicks. I think I wanted so badly to love it three months prior to official release, but it's still a fun little movie that should provide a bright light for everyone... at least until they get emotionally manipulated by Dear Evan Hansen.

It is hard to combine two potentially opposite things. To be yourself and to fit in. Much harder if you happen to be a teenager. "Everybody's talking about Jamie" is a fairytale. Based on real people, but nevertheless a fairytale. Young, effeminate, gay 16-year boy, abandoned by his father, with hopes and dreams and the grim reality of Sheffield, industrial city in southern Yorkshire. Not the greatest starting point for an aspiring drag queen. But then, aren't the starting points way overrated. Charming fairytale for our, all but charming, depressing times.