Watching: Judy and Punch
Nov. 17th, 2019 04:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
white_hartDespite having been Picturehouse members for years, we hadn't made it to one of their free preview screenings before; either they haven't been for films we were interested in seeing, or they haven't been at times that worked for us, but this morning there was a preview screening of Judy and Punch, which we'd already identified from the trailer as something we would be interested in seeing, so we went along.
The debut film from Australian director Mirrah Foulkes, Judy and Punch is a dark feminist reimagining of the traditional Punch and Judy show as revenge drama, starring Mia Wasikowska as Judy, a talented puppeteer married to feckless, alcoholic showman Punch. With a vaguely 17th-century setting which owes a lot to Monty Python in its authentic grubbiness and which has all the creepiness of the unexpurgated Grimm's fairy tales, and a terrific soundtrack which mixes electronic versions of Bach with folky tunes and Leonard Cohen, it's occasionally shocking in its violence (content warning for live-action versions of just about everything that happens in a Punch and Judy show, particularly child death and domestic abuse, although never played for laughs in this version) but ultimately an uplifting story of accepting and celebrating difference rather than fearing it which had me crying happy tears at the end.
The debut film from Australian director Mirrah Foulkes, Judy and Punch is a dark feminist reimagining of the traditional Punch and Judy show as revenge drama, starring Mia Wasikowska as Judy, a talented puppeteer married to feckless, alcoholic showman Punch. With a vaguely 17th-century setting which owes a lot to Monty Python in its authentic grubbiness and which has all the creepiness of the unexpurgated Grimm's fairy tales, and a terrific soundtrack which mixes electronic versions of Bach with folky tunes and Leonard Cohen, it's occasionally shocking in its violence (content warning for live-action versions of just about everything that happens in a Punch and Judy show, particularly child death and domestic abuse, although never played for laughs in this version) but ultimately an uplifting story of accepting and celebrating difference rather than fearing it which had me crying happy tears at the end.
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Date: 2019-11-17 07:09 pm (UTC)