Sextravagant, profound, adorable: these are them the adjectives it elicits Film clubsa bittersweet miniseries about the fear of becoming truly adults, starting today on RaiPlay. Evie and Noa are very good friends: every Friday they meet to watch a movie in a sort of private arthouse cinema where you can dress like the characters and repeat their lines. An unexpected change will lead the two cinephiles to rethink their lives and feelings they had never considered, making peace with their fragilities.
Film Clubminiseries plot in 6 episodes on RaiPlay
Twenty-five year olds Eve (Aimee Lou Wood) and Noah (Nabhaan Rizwan) they have been great friends for 8 years. They meet every Friday evening in the garage of her house, they choose a film and imitate the characters’ lines. Sometimes they have themed evenings inviting other people e.gi dress up as Wizard of Oz or as a monster Alien and answer film quizzes. A life that appears fun but hides many difficulties.
Six months earlier, Eve had an inexplicable mental breakdown at work. In front of her office colleagues who had just brought her a cake to celebrate her birthday, she found herself in a sort of blackout. Her legs no longer supported her and she even forgot the direction home. Deeply shaken, she chose to leave her job, her apartment and return to live with her family.
Despite the great affection and support of his mother Suz (Suranne Jones), sister Izzie (Liv Hill) and boyfriend Josh (Adam Long), after the nervous breakdown Eve never left the house again. He spends his days preparing costumes and sets for Friday’s filmsto ask Callum (Owen Cooper), a naughty neighborhood boy, to run some errands for her regardless of the fact that he takes the piss out of the rest.
Then there are the hours spent with Noa sharing their cinephile passion. When her friend informs her that she will have to move to Bristol in a new law firm specializing in family law, a branch he has always loved, she looks happy. But the feelings between them, whatever they are, they struggle to find ways to express themselves.
Aimee Lou Wood, Nabhaan Rizwan, Adam Long in “Film Club”. (RaiPlay)
The review of Film Club
Film Club chooses a very frequent theme in Young Adult and surrounding genre series: the impact and evolution that mental health problems and personal fragility have on the lives of young women brilliant and talented. The script, written by the promising duo Ralph Davis and Aimee Lou Wood herself, It has surreal tones and British nonsense.
A comedy that, at times, tries to get closer (but never succeeds) to the irresistible and painful humor of Fleabag. TOMichel Gondry’s magical realism atmospheres And to the neurotic romanticism of Woody Allen. The result, although far from the quality of those masters, it is an enjoyable dramatization of the difficulties of those under 30 in dealing with the consequences of one’s feelings.
The most obvious flaw is that the deliberate choice to give a touch of extravagance to the dialoguesas opposed to the immobility of actions and feelings, it tends to confuse the viewer and create less than credible situations. To save history by its own complexity it is the most powerful and original weapon of the series: the use of cinema as a message of escape and projections of one’s fears and desires.
The science fiction of Alien and Dorothy’s fate Wizard of Oz now they become lifeboats, now fantasies that distance the protagonists from the moment of entering the adult world. Because it’s only her emotions that scare Eve, not the world. Cinematic stories act as a translator for his experiences. At the same time, they create an illusory smoke screen between what is real and what is not. This paradox is resolved in the final episode. Eve chooses to mention the realistic Brief meeting, described by Noa as a depressing film about unconsummated love. “What a shitty ending.” «Yes, but let’s put on a nice soundtrack».
The cast and how the miniseries ends (spoilers)
Aimee Lou Wood she still carries the soul and look of the sensitive and absent-minded girl seen in Sex Educationand the naive lolita of The White Lotus 3. The result is that her Eve is the portrait of an entire generation of girls searching for themselves. The same ones who are afraid of not living up to their desires.
Nabhaan Rizwan creates a young man blocked by his own feelings to the point of immobilitybalanced between moving forward and the fear of falling behind in life. The rest of the cast is equally good. Suranne Jones (Hostage) is a mother overwhelmed by affection for her daughters and by the desire to just be an adult woman. To highlight the talented Owen Cooper, protagonist of Adolescencein the part of a pestiferous boy who proves, in the end, to have a big heart.
The ending of Film Club sets aside cinema for real life. Noa leaves Eve a letter. The envelope, however, is intercepted by Josh, who hides it in his jacket out of jealousy and insecurity. After clarifying things with her now ex-boyfriend, Eve makes a decision. She reaches Noa at the station to tell him everything she has never been able to tell not even to herself.
The reality of the facts, however, takes precedence over romanticism. On New Year’s Eve, after a cheerful women’s dinner in the garage, Suz and Izzie go out into the garden to watch the fireworks. Left alone, Eve sees Noa enter: the two are finally so close that they can have their first kiss. But is it reality or pure fantasy?