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Movie: Red, White & Royal Blue
Rating out of 5: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️.5
My Take: I hope this movie completely obliterates your world view!

Casey McQuiston’s bestselling LGBTQ+ novel Red, White & Royal Blue takes its cult queer status to a weightier platform and amasses a larger following through its feature adaptation. The Matthew López-directed R-Rated debut feature released on Amazon Prime Video on August 11, has something for everyone. From plot to story line to casting to dialogue, and some amazing eye candy, this 1 hour 58-minute film, takes the viewer on a roller coaster of emotions, at times making you forget it is just escapism and fantasy and at others making you fervently wish it was.

The movie tells the tale of a soon to be romance between political rivals Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine) and the first son of the United States, Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez). While that is the crux of the story, the many moving parts woven into and around their love story are not just a ‘fade into the background’ movie trope. A royal wedding, a cake-tastrophe, an upcoming presidential election, friends, allies, family, all unfold in jolly old England, polarized US, and ever-encouraging Paris.

Every actor takes to their roles like a duck to water. López has mentioned in interviews that he couldn’t have asked for better or more different actors than the ones that he got. In one interview he describes, “Henry was this very fragile thing, and I placed him inside Nick’s hands, and Nick cared for him throughout the process. Taylor really turned himself into a human cannonball to become Alex.” In another he reveals that he thinks in some ways, “Henry represents my past, and Alex represents my present and my future.”

The irony and the brilliance in casting Stephen Fry as the “fictional heterosexual homophobic bully of a monarch King James” is not lost on anyone. But the sheer skill with which Stephen Fry portrays him comes across in the end as more of a monarch weighed down by centuries of tradition and so very sure of the impact of his son’s relationship choices on his country, the monarchy, and the economy and so very unsure of the bearing it will have on Prince Henry personally. It’s a role you can see Stephen Fry enjoys immensely.

Uma Thurman shines as President Ellen Claremont, first female president of the US and Alex’s mom; and that red dress and southern drawl! Clifton Collins Jr is astute, witty, and loving as Oscar Diaz, husband of the President and father of Alex. Sarah Shahi’s Zahra Bankston, Ellie Bamber’s Princess Beatrice, and Rachel Hilson’s Nora Holleran all add to this hard, complicated yet hopeful story. Changes from the book to the movie were made tastefully and without taking away from the original tale.

While the movie sounds like a fun, light watch, it is R-Rated for a reason and Lopez has created a sex scene that is tasteful and what he calls  a reflection of the way he as a gay man has sex. Mainstream studios usually shy away from scenes of communion between LGBTQ+ characters but not so in this case as Lopez’s vision has had support from the get go. What we as an audience have received is a gift that keeps on giving through a night that is life-changing, a scene that makes logical sense, a moment that brings to life the difference between a Rom-Com and a love story, and an exquisitely captured awkward and realistic side to intimacy. An almost ‘through the looking glass’ moment where the script flips from light-hearted storytelling to ground reality investment in Alex and Henry’s future.

Red, White & Royal Blue has all the tacks of a good love story. Longing and ambition combine with being torn by tradition and duty, telling the parents meets political pressure and a disgruntled journalist airing private laundry on the altar of public reaction, coziness meets ease of being and characters that are infuriated with yet irrepressibly drawn to each other. And yet none of it is hackneyed. Kudos to the scriptwriters with lines as sassy as “You need to act like sunshine comes out of his ass and you have a Vitamin D deficiency” and telling as “First 50 Rows of a Gaga concert ‘Gay’.” And I doff my hat to music director Drum and Lace who has worked on and chosen this soundtrack with equal parts care and delightful abandon from Schubert to Joan Jett and Bach to Queen!

Amazon Studios & Berlanti-Schechter Films have garnered an engaged fan base with hearts in their eyes for a film where European elegance rendezvous with American machismo and the unspoiled rallies with the charming in an infectious mix that provides the resuscitation Rom-Coms need. I for one hope this movie completely obliterates your world view!

Come for: The love story

Stay for: The escapism and fantasy

Watch it for: Wholesome parenting, ‘green-flag’ love, and eye candy

Keep Watching for: The end credits scene at the 1:57:40 mark & deleted scenes on Amazon Prime’s Social Media

*Available to watch on Prime Video

© Ayesha Dominica

(Published in musicunplugged.in on September 15, 2023)

wove the exquisitely painful yet beautiful tapestry that is the fight for equal rights. Superstar vocalist Helen Reddy is one such story. And I Am Woman is the movie that has chosen to tell it today.

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