Damsel
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Year: 2024
Rating: 7.0
I had seen
so many negative - 1 or 2 star - reviews of this on Letterbox that I sort
of wanted to avoid it. But it stars Millie Bobby Brown who is pretty much
the only young actress whose career I follow. Even on Instagram. I feel like
I watched her grow up on Stranger Things - the only TV show I have ever watched
twice all the way through. And her Enola Holmes films are good fun. She was
a producer of the Enola Holmes films as well as this one. At 19 years old.
How do people do that? Getting control of her career and not letting herself
be controlled by the suits.
Well, I am glad I watched this one. Two
of my favorite things in films. Dragons and a kick-ass woman. Has there ever
been a bad film with dragons in it? And this one has a fine backstory. And
like all the best dragons, speaks impeccable English. Think of The Host.
That is basically what this is. Or The Naked Prey except it takes place in
a large cave with a dragon trying to hunt down the hero. And I like films
as I said with tough determined women who get their pound of flesh by the
end. And she does. Think Ripley. But not as scary. She has a solid
cast to go along with her - though for much of the film it is just her and
CGI - Angela Bassett as her not evil step-mother, Ray Winstone as her father
and Robin Wright as the very evil mother-in-law. Way better than I expected.
