Miss Révolution

A nice comedy about beauty contest, feminism, Bob Hope proposed, in fair way, by Greg Kienner and beautiful portrait of Dolores Hope by Lesley Manville. A reasonable social critic and inspired recreated atmosphere of the period.

There was no real bite. A reasonable watch, but it lacked something. Having grown up through the era where Miss World was presented as family entertainment, the culture made for some very uncomfortable viewing.

The trouble with beauty contests that it means different things around the world.

In Britain they acquired a reputation of being a cattle market that degraded women. As the years went by beauty contests went off the main television channels.

In the Americas, it can be used as a stepping stone to further your career objectives.

Misbehaviour has to tread this fine line. Based on the true incident of the 1970 Miss World Contest co-hosted by Bob Hope (Greg Kinnear.)

Sally Alexander (Keira Knightley) and Jo Robinson (Jessie Buckley) led a protest that showered Hope with flour on the night. It should had been rotten eggs as his act stank.

Sally is a mature university student who has to deal with sexist attitudes at university. She is appalled that Miss World is regarded by her own family as wholesome entertainment.

On the other hand for black contestants like Jennifer Hosten (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who is Miss Grenada and Pearl Jansen (Loreece Harrison) who is Miss Africa South. It offers an opportunity to break down barriers when the women are from impoverished backgrounds. Pearl Jansen is from a country where shs cannot even mix with whites.

Jansen was included as no black representative from South Africa had even entered. She would beat Miss South Africa in the contest. Miss Grenada was the first black winner, until then it would always be certain types that would win. White and blonde.

The film never quite gets to grip with the racial politics. It is lightly dealt with in contrast with the gender arguments. Sally and Jo could never appreciate the kind of world that some of the contestants came from.

One aspect of the competition that is glossed over was that the Morleys ran the contest with an iron grip.

Eric Morley (Rhys Ifan) comes across as a rough diamond. However they had strict rules which seemed absurd at the time. Constant chaperones for each contestant. If any contestant had posed nude or were married they would had been disqualified. In many ways such rules shielded the Miss World organisation from any later #MeToo allegations.

In the end Misbehaviour is an amiable film that overstates its feminist credentials.

Firstly I can't believe my eyes at the low review score. I watch (or try to) films from every Genre, depict every political and social narrative.

There is nothing to dislike here. It's not gender swapping shallow rehashes and trying to sell it with 4th wave feminism. It is a BRILLIANT and accessible film about a bunch of brave women. Now that isn't to imply we don't need a badass roster of women in our Marvel's and DC's but this is a story of real heroic women fighting against a seriously oppressive regime.

I thought that a few of the younger characters were going to be obnoxiously off-putting but for ONCE they aren't, for once despite a few slightly cringe moments near the start, they are real characters with the attitude to fight for change.

I think no matter what race you are, the colour of your skin or your gender you can take something away from this movie and see how we should all be continuing to fight against injustices from every angle.

9/10 is a very high mark. It didn't have a few hundred million pounds in CGI, hell the angles from many perspectives can seem confusing. However I disregard the notion that this is another "woke film". It is unironically woke.

Misbehaviour

I really enjoyed this movie from start to finished. The script tread a delicate line between the political and the comedic, and it did a fine job.

At the time, and in our innocence and naïveté, we all thought this was an "honest" competition that merely was part of the panoply of family entertainment with It's A Knockout and The Two Ronnies. This script was careful to show how public consciousness needed awakening to the obvious objectification of women and the stultifying job opportunities that were open to women at the time.

It was genuinely funny and really very heartwarming as the different characters came to grips with changing reality. Eric & Julie Morley were portrayed as the brains behind a global show and the success of that show was what guided their principles, they certainly did not believe their show exploited women, they believed is exalted female beauty for entertainment and gave the winners only dreamt of opportunities.

The acting was crisp the styling inspired and it breathed in all the right places. Millennials will be shocked forgetting that intent must lay behind any form of discrimination and that this show was mainly watched by women at the time who loved it.

I love this family movie and it reminds us that any form of objectification is a simplistic view of the world.