Tutti parlano di Jamie

I'll start by saying I'm a huge fan of live musicals and I really think West End and Broadway actors are some of the most talented performers around! I'm so sick of musical adaptions where it's such a priority to cast famous actors even when they can't sing (Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, Beauty and the Beast, the list goes on). To compensate they have to auto-tune the living daylights out of every song so it sounds like you're listening to some kind of tone-deaf, mechanical monster or, when even that fails, they have the actors basically speak the songs (cough Emma Watson cough). I also don't know who decided that James Corden is the musical star du jour but I'd like to know how we get them to cease and desist. It also upsets me when they brutally cut loads of the songs for no apparent reason and/or add in new songs that are clearly just tacked on for unfathomable reasons (a la Aladdin and pretty much every movie musical I've already mentioned).

Anyway, enough moaning about other movie musicals. Given the movie's title, I shall join everybody else talking about Jamie. I like that it's not a carbon copy of the musical (otherwise why not just do an awesome Hamilton-style stage recording) but instead acknowledges that this is a new and different medium from the stage and uses this to its full advantage. All of the cast are talented actors and singers. Max Harwood is the perfect Jamie: sweet, naive and endearing with the most gorgeous voice. His performance is very different from John McCrea's but equally beautiful. All of the other actors do a great job making this as heartwarming, enjoyable and moving as the live musical with a beautiful and meaningful message about encouraging people to be their true and honest selves.

I've no idea who is giving low ratings to this but I'd really encourage everyone to watch it and make up their own minds.

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.

This is a well made musical biography. The story is touching, uplifting and powerful. The songs are good, the visuals are colourful. The film lifts you up through the great songs.

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.

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 .