‘100 Nights of Hero’ assessment: A powerful queer feminist fairy story

As a way to expose the patriarchy for the absurd and harmful pantomime it’s, Julia Jackman actually makes it one in 100 Nights of Hero. Based mostly on Isabel Greenberg’s graphic novel, the Bonus Monitor director’s second function is a playful, unusual, and visually magnificent tackle the preposterousness of not-so-medieval attitudes towards ladies and the braveness it takes to demand extra.

A hyper-coloured, queer, feminist fairy story, 100 Nights of Hero attracts from historical past via a fantastical lens. You will recognise the marks of the age of witchcraft persecutions and the lengthy, persevering with historical past of males’s institutional energy over ladies and their our bodies. They’re actual, topical parts — they only occur to be drenched in magenta lighting, meticulous manufacturing design, and opulent costumes. 

With touches of commedia dell’arte, glowing performances from Emma Corrin, Maika Monroe, and Nicholas Galitzine, and a hype-worthy look by Charli xcx, 100 Nights of Hero is among the display jewels of the 12 months.

What’s 100 Nights of Hero about?

A pastiche of historic intervals that leans on the medieval, 100 Nights of Hero is ready in an empire the place the political context feels uncomfortably fashionable at instances. Framed with Wes Anderson-worthy symmetrical pictures and surreal starburst lenses by cinematographer Xenia Patricia, the movie immediately seems like a fable, with beautiful visible results by Paul Rice and razor-sharp enhancing by Amélie Labrèche and Oona Flaherty.

By means of charming narration from Prepare Goals‘ Felicity Jones over Oliver Coates’ dreamy rating, we be taught the creation delusion of Kiddo (Anemone‘s Safia Oakley-Inexperienced). Alas, the misogynist Hen Man (an all the time flawless Richard E. Grant) ruins Kiddo’s joyful realm with guidelines, parameters enforced by future Beak Brothers, a league of chauvinists who honor their forefather with formidable chicken masks. “So needs Hen Man,” they decree, upholding their ancestor’s necessities of the best spouse as “lovely, obedient, good at chess and falconry.” Because of the impeccable work of manufacturing designer Sofia Sacomani, majestic stained glass home windows honour males and warn of sinful ladies — fertile, quiet, obedient ladies are commemorated; all different types of womanhood (together with needs exterior the heteronormative) are condemned. 

On this persecutory local weather, we meet one among our protagonists, Cherry (Longlegs star Maika Monroe), a noblewoman whose organized marriage to nobleman Jerome (Limbo‘s Amir El-Masry) has not been consummated. That will fly in a realm the place producing an inheritor wasn’t the stuff of all-male council assembly agendas, however right here the pair is given a somewhat one-sided ultimatum: Conceive in 100 nights or Cherry will face the executioner’s block. Jerome? He is off the hook, could not be his fault.

Alas, Cherry waits unhappy for a glimmer of ardour every night time, the couple’s fortress bedrooms stored separate, her need buried beneath pious white finery. Regardless of the literal deadline going through Cherry, Jerome instantly decides to go away on enterprise (critically, now!?), however not earlier than a dastardly guess with roguish lord Manfred (The Thought of You‘s Nicholas Galitzine) that his buddy can not seduce his spouse in his absence. Cherry is doomed in both situation: Face demise for adultery or lack of conception.

Fortunately, Cherry has a fierce protector in her maid and “finest buddy” (for the bigots within the again, I SAID “BEST FRIEND”) Hero (Nosferatu and Girl Chatterley’s Lover star Emma Corrin), the movie’s titular co-protagonist, who has quite a lot of secrets and techniques hidden away within the floorboards. They are not named Hero for nothing.

100 Nights of Hero is a trove of glowing performances.

Nicholas Galitzine’s Manfred insists he is “not like different lords.”
Credit score: BFI London Movie Pageant

Swathed within the finery of costume designer Susie Coulthard’s creations (we’ll get to these), the solid of 100 Nights of Hero make for one formidable ensemble.

A strolling crimson flag cloaked in “not like different lords” chicanery, Galitzine’s Manfred is the stuff of paperback romance desires and fashionable courting nightmares. With purpose set for swoon, he is perpetually leaning in doorways, suggestively consuming blackberries, strutting via the grounds shirtless and lined in deer blood declaring “LUNCH!” However he is additionally a narcissistic bastard by each rely, who shamelessly damns decorum and flaunts his virility in each scene.

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Nonetheless, regardless of the male energy swamping each corridor, the story’s two heroes are its shining stars. Monroe’s Cherry is outwardly a melancholy marble statue, the “paragon of advantage” her husband so describes her as, overwhelmingly discovering herself on the mercy of males’s selections. Nearly robotic in her actions, Monroe presents a splendidly absurd concept of pious, ornamental womanhood, leaving her solely moments of freedom, vulnerability, and burgeoning ardour for personal scenes along with her beloved Hero. And it is these scenes between Monroe and Corrin that show essentially the most quietly butterfly-inducing of the movie.

Corrin performs an excellent Hero, a twinkle-eyed storyteller and fearless bullshit detector. Clocking Manfred’s flagrant makes an attempt to seduce Cherry instantly, Hero fires silent insults with a glance whereas providing Cherry a social escape route: a continually-orated story of three sisters. Portrayed in dreamy, frost-lit sequences, Hero’s Story of the Dancing Stones is a golden thread woven into every scene, as Cherry metaphorically hits the panic button every time Manfred turns into Too A lot. Within the story, we meet three raven-haired sisters (an exquisite Charli xcx, Kerena Jagpal, and Olivia D’Lima) who fairly frankly deserve their very own film. They have been “skilled for marriage,” by their father, however the sisters share a secret expertise, one deemed “sinful, depraved, and forbidden for girls.” Each time Corrin picks up the place we left off with the story, I settled additional into my chair, the actor’s expertise for storytelling on full show.

However right here, as in the primary storyline, there are two complete champions behind the digital camera. 

100 Nights of Hero is a surreal triumph of design

Felicity Jones not solely narrates however reveals up on this unimaginable costume.
Credit score: BFI London Movie Pageant

Increase a gilded goblet for 100 Nights of Hero manufacturing designer Sofia Sacomani, artwork director Naomi Bailey, costume designer Susie Coulthard, and set decorator Tatyana Jinto Rutherston, for his or her artistry makes this movie shimmer. A cornucopia of neon-hued hallways, outstanding stained glass, absurdly skinny eating chairs, and gleaming bird-shaped fits of armour, the movie’s meticulous design is a complete knockout. Each scene appears ok to eat, every a violaceous stage for Coulthard’s resplendent costumes.

A museum-worthy vary of exact tailoring and theatrical spins on historic garb, Coulthard’s designs encourage jaw drop after jaw drop. She hammers residence the preposterous patriarchal roots of the movie’s omnipotent non secular group, the Beak Brothers, adorning them with chicken cranium masks and deep crimson cardinal cloaks, and attire Manfred within the billowing sleeves of a scoundrel.

Although Hero is restricted to a maid’s uniform, Coulthard elongates their collar and crowns them with a crisp, white hennin, an outfit that makes Corrin’s character each sensible and otherworldly. Nonetheless, essentially the most marvellous outfits are worn by Cherry, embodying her decorative social function. Exaggerated leg of mutton sleeves, puffed and quilted off-shoulder material, delicate lace collars, and feathered neckpieces make up Coulthard’s parade of ornate appears for Cherry, with Monroe exuding woe and constraint in each bit — an elegantly boned wood girdle speaks volumes that Cherry can not.

At its whimsical coronary heart, 100 Nights of Hero is a narrative of ladies’s braveness and resilience, of pursuing data and fervour past the perilously excessive fences of patriarchy. It is a dazzling world of suppressed queer identification and need, of male bravado and paranoia, and of the facility of storytelling itself. Jackman has crafted us a topical deal with, finely wearing splendour and social commentary. It is nothing wanting heroic.

100 Nights of Hero was reviewed out of BFI London Movie Pageant. The movie will will likely be launched in choose U.S. cinemas on Dec. 5, with a UK launch set for Jan. 2026.