Keira Knightley

Misbehaviour

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Misbehaviour
  • IMDb: link

Misbehaviour movie reviewMisbehaviour looks back at both the 1970 Miss World competition in London and a handful of women involved with the women’s liberation movement who achieved overnight fame by invading the stage and disrupting the live broadcast. The script by Rebecca Frayn, who also directs, and Gaby Chiappe is a bit more nuanced than I expected. While the film certainly points out the numerous issues with the pageant objectifying the contestants for the public, it also showcases the good of Miss World offering opportunity to women all over the world and allowing both the panel’s judges and its audience the opportunity to consider beauty in different forms.

Keira Knightley stars as a college student and new member of the more disruptive chapter of the WLM (Jessie Buckley, Ruby Bentall, Lily Newmark, among others). The 1970 pageant was memorable both for the protest, which disrupted the live telecast, and for the fact that Miss Grenada (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) became the first black woman to win. Greg Kinnear is a bit hammy playing Bob Hope, who the organizers (Rhys Ifans and Keeley Hawes) recruit as this year’s celebrity. But, to be fair, he is playing Bob Hope.

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The Nine Best Films of 2019

/ / Top Tens & Lists

The Nine Best Films of 2019

Family was a strong theme in many of my favorite films of 2019. My list includes some famous directors, one super-hero, secrets, mystery and deception, strong ensembles, the search for the truth, and the horrors of war and divorce. Tying for an honorable mention (I couldn’t decide on which to include as #10 on the list) are the equally good, yet very different, Dolemite is My Name and Motherless Brooklyn. Without further ado, it is time to count down the nine best movies of 2019.

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Official Secrets

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Official Secrets
  • IMDb: link

Official Secrets movie review

The world could use a few more people like Katherine Gun. Based on the true story of a British Intelligence officer discovering her government’s willingness to assist the United States in moving forward with an invasion of Iraq regardless of actual facts, director Gavin Hood‘s film stays focused on the personal cost to whistleblower Katherine Gun (Keira Knightley) as the film takes us through her discovery of a memo from the NSA asking for help blackmailing nations on the United Nations Security Council in order to rubber stamp the 2003 Iraq invasion through to her day in court a year later.

Knightley is terrific in the role of the defiant but terrified woman whose actions cause ramifications not just for herself but for her husband (Adam Bakri) who is nearly deported by a spiteful government that leaves her twisting in the wind for the better part of a year. Her supporting cast isn’t too shabby either including Matt Smith as the reporter who broke the story (but who only shares a single scene with Knightley on-screen), Rhys Ifans as another reporter on the scent, and Ralph Fiennes and Matthew Goode who emerge when the case moves to trial.

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