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I didn't really like Spencer (2021) - Review
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- čas přidán 23. 12. 2021
- Time to share another unpopular film opinion! Though Kristen Stewart's Spencer's glossy veneer and indie darling cast seem indicative of a sophisticated film, the actual substance is not quite there. What is it about British biopics?
Twitter: / jane_mulcahy
Instagram: / jxnecm
Letterboxd: letterboxd.com...
Love it or hate it, you have to agree that the poster is absolute fire
Reminds me of horror version of Monet's painting.
If you absolutely have to make a comparison I think Diana was more like Katherine of Aragon
-beloved by the public
- known for kindness and charity
-had to live with her husband openly cheating on her and then divorcing her and marrying his mistress
I’m definitely not saying either is a perfect comparison because I think it’s always kind of a stretch when you try to find direct parallels in history, but I kind of wonder if they didn’t go with Anne Boleyn just because of the beheading.
I was thinking the same thing! Anne Boylen stole the king away from the real queen. Why would Diana sympathize with her? It was definitely for the beheading. The pearls around her neck have more impact when you think about the beheading of Anne Boleyn. Stupid pretentious movie!
I think because they were portraying Diana was used by the royal family and thrown away as Anne was, whereas Katherine was a direct royal so had much more power to her name and more control of her destiny. But I see the beloved by the people connection.
Charles didn't divorce Diana.
Diana wanted the separation.
Then later the queen told them to divorce.
Completely agree. I absolutely LOVED the aesthetic of this move, it was like a painting. But I could not get over the script, anytime I thought something was a bit clever, they then said it out loud to point out how clever it was and basically ruined it for me.
I couldn't find any other negative reviews online, and here I find that you have mostly managed to verbalised why I didn't like Spencer!!! Thank youuu
I did not like Spencer. It seems to be a very abstract interpretation of Diana. It makes her look completely crazy and I understand why her family does not like this movie. Kristen Stewart has overblown all of Diana's mannerisms and speech to the point it's like a satire. I enjoyed The Crowns Diana much better. That actress captured Diana's faults and emotional problems in a very realistic and believable way. You can see Diana has issues but she doesn't come across as crazy. The Crown also captures Diana's humanity and love for everybody including the sick. Spencer is too out there.
Thank you really thought I was the only person who thought this way about both portals of diana
Thank you. This perfectly verbalised why I didn’t like the film. I enjoyed it on its own, as a piece of visual art. I just couldn’t bear how it pretended to tell Diana’s story. It was nothing to do with Diana. As you say, it was a collection of vague visual representations of Diana. It felt very exploitative, in acting like it was empathising with her and her story, when it was doing nothing of the sort. It looks even worse when compared to the Crown, which portrayed a much more sensitive and accomplished retelling of her story.
I thought the same, it made her seem crazy, but in fairness the film is set over 3 days during the period Diana was mentally ill.
It was heavy handed and unsubtle to the point of cliché - that’s what I didn’t like about it.
The acting and production were good. Excellent accent - completely convincing but a little too characteristic to the point of sounding like an impression or caricature of Diana (so yes, put on). Jillian Anderson has a real British accent.
Also Diana took her kids to McDonalds not KFC. Not sure why the switch
I think that was the point, a lot of people would act the same in similar conditions
Just watching the previews I thought the same. Having to live through what she did almost anyone would have gotten depressed especially since she was such a lively fun young woman. She wasn't crazy at all. The books are more realistic based on her personal views.
I didn't understand why people made such a fuss about this movie. I believe a lot of people enjoyed watching it but calling a masterpiece and saying it deserves all the awards is an overstatement.
I agree - I was totally underwhelmed by this movie. I’m genuinely surprised it has received so many accolades. I thought it was actually quite cringy and I thought her way of speaking in bursts may not have been how Diana would have spoken. It was depressing when it could have actually been enlightening.
Underwhelmed is such a good word! They said so little yet nothing that gave us a unique view on her.
So Diana thinks hunting birds is awful, then proceeds to take her sons to KFC
And stealing a chicken leg from the fridge
She clearly meant that she didn't want her young son to shoot and be around guns
@@Valeriamtzp I think the OP was just kidding. I was. 😉
I mean in all honesty a lot of people eat meat but find hunting to be a bit extreme. It is not a logical thing as much as it is an emotional thing
Yes .. I do. We will do. We all eat meat. Same time we pet a bird or a dog.. Come.on dumbass.
"a fable from a true tragedy" just call it real-person fanfiction and leave.
This movie should be called 'The curtains and the coat' lol. It was a chore and a slog to get through. I rolled my eyes so many times that I got dizzy. Everybody is loving this garbage🤢
Everybody opening their mouth onlime and getting picked up by the algorithm...it's false advertising. Nobody can verify if the majority of people that watched the movie, actually like it. The algorithm does not pick up negative/critical reviews on movies that are heavily promoted on social media.
Just finished watching this movie this evening. Then I looked on CZcams to see if anyone felt similarly. This movie was so juvenile and contrived. After the maid said she was in love with her, I threw up my hands and lost interest.
And don’t get me started on that Philip Glass-type background music.
The music went full horror movie score in a way that felt like it was mocking her breakdown.
@@trashbasket11 I thought the music was more reflecting her breakdown. Also that unnerving quality of the music is kind of the style of the composer.
15 minutes in I was actually shouting at the screen(don't worry; I'm alone): oh for gods' sake Diana, put on your dress and go downstairs. The way she was portrayed illicits no sympathy at all. When we first see Maggie, I thought; 'are you two going to kiss?' I just thought it was some artistic acting choice that I didn't get. But when she told Di she was in love with her, I went" Oh for feck's sake!Come on!" It was so silly. The scenes with her sons were just weird and for some reason I found William to be super-annoying. He reminded me of one of those posh children in Katherine Tate's skits. "Mummeh...your being silleh. Please, mummeeeeh" And the depiction of her eating disorder and self harm seemed...hammy and almost an insult to actual mental disorders. It felt exactly like when those bloggers promote anti-anxiety gummy bears because 'like, I read the comments and you guuuuys, my anxieddeeeee starded gedding rilly baaaad?! Like and subscribe and hit that like buddon, so I can get rid of my anxieddeeeeee'. Reading comments on review channels, all they talk about is:"This really shows her vulnerability and the severity of eating disorder and nobody really knows what it's like, it was really well done"
It wasn't well done at all! It looked exploitative. A parody. I starve and binge when I get anxious but I just burst out laughing at the unsubtle image of Diana hanging over a toiletbowl in a gorgeous dress. If a filmmaker can make me laugh at eating disorders; there must be something wrong with either the film or me. In this case; it's both. That movie sucked ass.
yep this is just another juvenile superficial woke movie -- to the point that it is quite disrespectful to people really struggling with these issues. I'm not sure if the music works fine with the movie, but it is still some high quality music -- for studying. This is a shallow, unorganized combination of some beautiful stuff here and there in the popular culture.
I agree completely! After I saw Spencer I scoured CZcams and reviews for anything somewhat critical that spoke to my feelings and found none (I think b/c I saw it early in the theatrical run). The circle-jerking over this movie is so annoying. But yes like MY GOD the unsubtle ham-fisted Anne Boleyn bullshit! Hated it. The movie was trying so hard. Too hard.
It also didn't sit right for me as someone semi-familiar with more critical views of Diana--not her deified/saintly memory mania. She wasn't just some wilting flower who was SO SAD OH NOES. Diana had many sharp edges (she pushed! her stepmother! down the stairs! as an ADULT!), and she could be forceful, glittering and manipulative... on top of her sensitivities and vulnerability. She was charming, intense, and complex. Played the media like a fiddle (including planting gossip about her sister-in-law Fergie to cover her own ass, re: a story about Diana having an affair). At the point this movie takes place, she had been cheating for years--but they play the line of her playing victim with Charles. Like, yeah, their marriage sucked and he sucked in it, but she was screwing on the side with aplomb (like most royals lol). I would have liked to see a more three dimensional portrait and not only the hard-on these dudes have for Sad, Saintly Diana.
Oh and MY GOD THAT LESBIAN MOMENT WAS SO WEIRD. I'm pro-lesbian; it was just done so fucking poorly. Me: a man wrote this. And then the KFC ending. Lord.
IMO Kristen Stewart was good in this up to a point... but she's playing a caricature constructed by these dudes, fueled by her own relating of her anxiety to the character. Yes, Diana may have had anxiety... but really NOT to this degree. I think Kristen fed a bit too much of herself into the performance, so it was a lovely one, but not of Diana Spencer. Some nice moments, but just unrelentingly I'M SO VULNERABLE AND SAD.
Yes to all of this! Definitely agree about the complexity of the character- I'm no Diana scholar but this portrayal is pretty one-note. I'm sure she wasn't simply a mopey jilted wife, it seems like there was a lot of volatility and spontaneity there that doesn't really come through here.
And YES to the written by a man thing. I thought about mentioning it in this video but feared I would attract some "are you saying men can't tell stories about women??!!" type comments lol. It's just so obvious, especially in the way her mental illness and response to Charles' cheating are written. Like something about the romanticization/almost fetishization of her eating disorder and self harm is so slimy and I think would've been much more subtle and sensitive in the hands of a female writer. It really pains me that this movie has fooled so many people.
@@jane-mulcahy Yes! Plus... not that she "got over" her eating disorder... but it was more... managed by 1991. She did get help and at the least the stories of the worst of her bulimia are all from the early-to-mid 80s AFAIK. So they're bringing out 1981-era ED drama to 1991 Diana. And she did struggle with aspects of mental illness but... not the fetishistic fragile bird stuff from this movie. Part of the problem is we DON'T know what MI she had b/c she nor anyone else shared that in terms of a diagnosis (there was one report from the royals of bpd, but they retracted that claim after blowback in the press). So they just made a series of weird choices that reduce her to this male fantasy of beautiful fragility.
They also sourced the story from her Andrew Morton book which is a very selective, self-serving book--Diana was SMART with that book, and it's like... they read no other material on her? You can tell. (The Crown, no the other hand, uses one of the books I read--The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown, which is more even-handed about both "sides.")
Also I did not realize the writer wrote the travesty that is Serenity, one of the worst movies of all time, so thank you for that ha. (I saw it in the THEATER! Using Movie Pass but STILL)
@yourbestie Wow, touched a nerve. Sorry we don't share the same opinions. We don't all have to agree, but you don't have to come in hot throwing aspersions at me, a stranger on the Internet. I recommend The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown, though you'll hate it so maybe not. It doesn't deify Diana and that's what you prefer--everything I said is sourced in that book, though. (You won't like what she has to say about the throwing herself down the stairs pregnant story, for sure; there's a reason The Crown omitted it from their storyline.) And I won't out myself in a CZcams comment b/c I don't owe you shit--but no, I'm not being homophobic in not liking the handling of a scene that was tonally out of place and constructed by two ostensibly straight men--that's an interesting first point of defense for you though. Everyone who doesn't like the way queerness was inserted into a story is homophobic? Queer people are not a monolith.
@@AlexaDonne lol you’re a lot more angry than who you’re replying to.
@yourbestie Lmaooo you sound bitter because you love the saint Diana image. Diana most def gossiped about Fergie, Fergie herself said they weren't talking around the time of her death because they fell out. Diana was actually good friends with Andrew. As for cheating, Diana slept with married men, she basically did what Camilla did to their wives. She wasn't a saint get over it. She also said problematic comments.
When Kristen Stewart portrayed an anxious Diana, all I could see was Bella Swan making those weird noises and faces. I know Kristen is better than this, but I've seen her mannerisms and ticks when she plays a character and immediately I go "that's Kristen" and I'm fully aware it's not the character. she also does this thing with her arm when she portrays stress where she holds it stock straight by her side then sticks her clenched fist out from her hip. I've seen her do it with other characters and that also took me out of this. I didn't enjoy this movie, it didn't endear me to Diana or help me empathize with her, nor did the other characters feel sympathetic. It was all just really unenjoyable
I’ve seen most of Kristen’s work and didn’t see any of her mannerisms here.
💯 Kristen’s usual mannerisms. So played out now!
THANK YOU!!! She’s still the ole tomboyish, awkward, lanky gal that makes these uneasy facial expressions. She wasn’t a believable mother, nor did she embody that sweet innocence that Diana had, and her accent was terrible. I’m really not understanding the hype for her performance.
Ys kristen needs to work on her teeth and tongue clucking noises. It's very obvious she does this in every film.
Couldn't agree more with you! Also, really unpopular opinion: I think Kristen Stewart was a colossal miscast. Parts of her performance rubbing me the wrong way is surely the directing, but Stewart has none of the charm Diana had and every negative thing is so damn overacted, I can't even 💀
What exactly do you mean by Stewart having “none of the charm”?
@@lc3920 She doesn't!
@@lc3920 seems self explanatory
@@lc3920 it’s not an insult to Stewart to say she doesn’t have the same type of natural charm and elegance that Diana had. Stewart is much better suited for characters with more edge and bluntness. More of a princess daisy or Elsa than a princess peach or Anna. Stewart’s strengths are just in other places
HOLY SHIT. You just put together my exact thoughts after the movie. Every single one. The writing killed it. The ending was the nail in the coffin. The soundtrack is SICKENING tho:
Something I've noticed is fans of this movie aren't just like oh well I liked it they feel the need to personally insult anyone that didn't
I appreciate you acknowledging this 😓 obviously some people have been perfectly
nice/respectful, but lately I've also been getting a lot of people calling me stupid for having a different opinion than them. It's frustrating bc I feel like I made clear in this vid that I mean no disrespect towards people who liked the movie.
I just recently saw Spencer with my mom and, well..... we both found it quite underwhelming. We both had the same take. It absolutely bothered us that she was made to look crazy. While I don't doubt that Diana felt crazy living in that pressure cooker, it felt..... defamatory to Diana's memory and legacy. Kristen forced the accent to an irritating degree. Also, the Gregory character reeked of the caretaker from the Shining, which felt like they were going for a horror movie vibe more than anything else. It just didn't land on any level for either me or my mom. If you squint, you could maybe see what they were going for, but.... they would've had to go a lot further for this film to have worked.
I personally thought Kristen was doing an impersonation of Emma Watson. She sounded exactly like her.
@@kelliea7451 I thought her accent sounded familiar! She did sound similar to Emma.
Honestly I found this film so pretentious- an “art film” about Lady Di. The jazz is just so irritating instead of enlightening. All of it is so forced.
Kristen's interpretation was also horrifying. It looked like a very bad impression of Diana.
I did not enjoy this movie either for all the same reasons you expressed much better than I could! Glad I’m not the only one though!
Okay, thank you for making this. It’s so hard to find a review right now that actually criticizes this movie. It’s… not good. The only saving graces we’re the cinematography and score.
KFC actually made a sweater merch reagrding this movie with chickens as the pattern and why it was even placed in the movie to begin with, originally irl Diana actually took her kids to Macdonald's and the movie probably was going to do that but oh my KFC offered a cute sweater merch deal uwu
I just finished this film. I like the idea of exploring the ugly side of her life, the pain, the hurt but it made her seem insufferable which doesn’t quite fit the way people that knew her spoke of her.
I actually felt bad for the rest of the royal family that had to deal with her throughout the entire movie, which is probably not what they were going for.
The way my jaw dropped at "it's a thrilla in Manila between Diana Camilla"
I didn't care for this film it's definitely overrated and I wasn't blown away by kristin stewart's performance. It was an okay portrayal just not oscar worthy. Good review on it. Its good to see someone with open mind and not going along with all the charade. Also This movie felt more like fan fiction than a biopic. Lol
Well, it does say “a fable from a true tragedy“ at the very beginning of the film.
Ah yes, because people definitely can never just agree with the majority; they are obviously just agreeing with what’s popular to be cool. Always.
@@lc3920 exactly
@@LeeLee19901 I hope you know I’m being sarcastic
You even understand the word "A Fable From a True Tragedy" means right up there in the opening title card?
by just watching the beginning of the movie and the long shots of everything I could tell that they were trying to win an award or something like that
But what is actually so wrong about beautiful long shots.
I totally agree that this film is masquerading as a deep, artistic, nuanced portrayal of Diana's life but in reality, it's just hard to watch. I'm willing to admit that I don't know much about Princess Diana and I'm not a die-hard Kristen Stewart fan so maybe this movie just isn't made for me to like. Most reviews of this movie say that the best part of the film was Kristen's performance but I thought her performance was so distractingly bad. I think that the the pool scene between Diana and her husband was fantastic and the look of the film was impressive but the overall story seemed insensitive and one-noted. At some points, I was actually agreeing with the people around Diana that she was acting unreasonable and mopey. That definitely wasn't the intention of the film.
yes! thank you for putting my thoughts into words! what bothered me especially was the anne boylen comparison, like, it would have been good if it were like you said "a suddle nod" but it just felt so overly underlined. i did , however, really like the scene where diana is in the candlelight playing with her boys. it felt really heartfelt and unique even though that scene also just mainly focused on diana being sad
"Subtle."
I tried to see the amazing performance by Kristen that everyone is raving about and------I just couldn't see it. I don't know if it was the melodramatic screenplay or the direction but it felt borderline parody. She had OTT sad eyes and looked ridiculously distraught in every scene. I'm sure that's what they were going for but for me it just didn't work.
Coming from a guy who is greatly disappointed with "Joker", you literally described every "art movies" nowaday. They pretend to be sophisticated but just ain't.
Even streaming service like Stan/Netflix/Prime hire directors/cinematographers to explain their own scenes. It's like magician revealing their tricks... or i dunno, wanna boast to everyone how smart they are?
This may come out as a rant, but I feel like they are trying way too hard to make their movie feel "DEEP", which has turned into a great marketability these days.
Old movies were relatable, have emotion, and made sense & gracefully flowed to the end. Now days its ????? & what the heck did I watch. I thought Diana came off as spoiled & rude. Overall awful portrayal or fable of Diana
the joker was better than this film
The confession of love from Sally Hawkins, I believe, was jsut her making fun, to have Diana get that name she was asking for, "Diana the Shocked" since she was just asking what was going to be her one name tag.
I agree. I think she was just trying to make her feel better about herself and laugh. I loved this movie.
What I did not like about this movie. Is indeed the made up story and even though she did look like her and she talked like her..but she always walked so fake and those moments where she had the same innocent smile etc it felt like a cardboard character. And indeed the stupid swallowing huge pearls in which a normal human would suffocate. So many weird moments like the sudden lesbian love of that towards her. I think , despite her looking like her, despite the costumes etc it was really a big big letdown for me, this movie.
I just found it boring and Kristen Stewart performance was okay imo. The cinematography and costume was beautiful
Funnily enough, I lived in Lancaster in 2000, and the ONLY fast food restaurant I remember being in the town was KFC
dont know how gaga didnt get nominated but kristine do
i think the biggest fib is that Kirsten Stewart can act. If this "performance" is worthy of an Oscar, I have to lie down and let the ENTIRE CAST of every show in the BBC walk all over me. That includes reality tv shows. Don't worry folks, everyone will know the Emperor is naked soon enough.
I didn’t like Spencer either!!! I was disappointed .. and why did they make her seem so impossible.
Thank you! I watched this movie yesterday and wondered what was I not getting about it? Am I the only one who feels this way? I am a huge Kristin Stewart fan. Just look at her movies like Speak, The Cake Eaters, Clouds of Sils Maria, Personal Shopper and Underwater, great performances. I know she can only work with the screenplay she gets and whatt the director wants, but I just don't get the hype over this performance. I think the screenplay does a huge disservice to mental illness, eating disorders and even more so to Diana herself.
As a person who grew up in the era of Diana, this movie didn't move me. I'm not a royalist but liked Diana. The music was irritating at best almost to the point of nauseating making my British ears bleed. Despite the snail pace of it I understood it's progression to show Diana's decline in mental health from a suffocating environment. I'm not a fan of Kirsten Stewart but I will say she played Diana extremely well. Finally I think she's shook off the glittery sh*t from twilight. I cannot understand how so many reviewers love this film but hey.
It felt like many of it's parts were good on their own, but altogether didn't make for a great final product.
I felt what you mentioned about the acting 100%, and idk why, but I feel as if the actors were unprepared. In the crown all the characters feel incredibly well studied. Even tho the Crown is basically the soap opera, I like the performances there so much more. Here I felt exactly as you said: like everyone was just wearing costumes of the characters.
And the script felt like the person who wrote it only cared about the Diana story on a surface level
I enjoyed the movie, given I don’t know much about the life of princess Diana. It left a lot for my imagination to play with. You do make some pretty good points and while I agree with alot of what you said I still enjoyed the more simple aspects of the movie. Like the color palette and the cinematography and choice of clothing. The music wasn’t very pretty but I guess it wasn’t supposed to be. the whole thing just felt like I picked up a book about princess Diana and just read one random chapter from it so I guess that’s why I can tolerate the randomness. plus kristen was looking real cute 🥰
This was my favorite movie of 2021, so I had to watch this to understand why you didn't like it. I disagree with all your points, but I also can see where you were coming from.
If Melancholia was based around Princess Diana, but less interesting. Great acting. Great cinematography, sets, wardrobe, and overall aesthetics. It just wasn’t entertaining to me. If I ever go back to watch, it would be strictly for the Aesthetics.
I love both this movie and Melancholia, but I’d hardly call EITHER of them “entertaining.” I think they’re both intriguing to watch, which is different than entertaining to me.
@@lc3920 I could agree with that. I probably found melancholia slightly entertaining because of the plot line of what was happening.
Just watched this movie and had to find someone else who disliked it. I was really excited for it, but it was SO not what I was expecting. I honestly kind of hated it, lol. Jackie was definitely the superior biopic from this director.
I just saw this film and felt like it was about a constipated family dealing with a spoilt child.
i agree with your critic Jane. To be honest the royal family is pretty naff tbh and a spent force.
Maybe the world has moved on from their pretentious lives .
I actually missed the last 30 mins because i could not be bothered with the cliques and insufferable plot.
Oh well....
I couldn't disagree more with you! Kristen Stewart did an excellent job to portray Lady Di! The scenes and the whole aesthetic of the movie was immaculate! But I definitely appreciated your review nonetheless x
I knew I hated this movie and didn’t need to see it to find out. That’s for taking one for the team and making bullet points for us 😩😩😩
They could have at least eaten at Nando's or like a small London chicken shop
very true! kind of weird that they didn't just use an independent chicken shop, considering there are like 5 billion of them in London
@@jane-mulcahy it just has to be product placement.
This movie made me stop making excuses for Kristin Stewart. She’s just not a good actor, and this is coming from someone who loves her in Twilight, like I rewatch those movies just to watch her because I honestly think what she does in those movies is interesting. In Spencer, I felt like I was watching a hammy child portray Diana. Her pauses don’t make sense, and actually hinder the overall understanding of what her character is saying. Everything about her is sequential. Say line, move, pause, freeze, move again, say line. It happens over and over and it’s so noticeable because people don’t do this in real life. There are performances when you can tell when an actor is thinking more about what they look like while speaking/moving than actually being present within a scene and this is the most blatant example of that I’ve ever seen. I wracked my brain trying to make excuses as to why she was doing this, and tried to justify it by telling myself that it’s to portray Diana being uncomfortable around the royals. But then that scene with her kids came up and I had to abandon all hope, because even with the two Diana trusts the most, Kristin is still giving a super stiff performance, I mean air is barely leaving her mouth. It’s such a mess and I don’t know how people aren’t seeing it? I was so excited to watch this movie given how the reviews were coming in about her performance was a must see and I have defended her acting for years but after this movie? No way. She definitely did a lot of work for this performance, but she put her energy in all the wrong places and I don’t think she actually has a good understanding of acting nor is she comfortable enough in her body to be able to convince an audience that she’s a real a person on screen. There are definitely niche roles that can fit her, but this was so far out of her limited range.
I agree! And I think it's especially common in biopics, I feel like in a lot of them you see the actor focused so much on doing a good impression of the famous person that they don't really inhabit the role and make the character seem like a real person.
I was so pleased to listen to your review. I watched the movie last night and thought it was awful. I am a massive fan of anything Royal especially Diana and this left me totally cold.
Your review is spot on. This movie was bad. It was very one note. Stewart is not a good actress.
Oh no, it was demonstrably bad. I don't think that's being said more because of Stewart. I saw her on one of the night shows and she seemed proud of it, in that Stewart kinda way. Anyway, i love Diana, so if course i was going to watch, but i hated this Diana both in how she was written and how she was interpreted. Diana, the people's Princess, the Queen of our hearts, i love her. This movie is horrible.
I didn't like her looking insane all the time. Craziest people you ever meet aren't a 10+ crazy ALL. THE. TIME.
Abuse doesn't work that way, either. Nobody would stand for it. Although over time, VERY VERY nice (to manipulate and keep someone around) to just needlessly mean (snotty things Charles says would be a day-to-day type of abuse. Hard to live with even if physical abuse isn't a factor. Yet)--turns more to mean/abuse over time. It does NOT get better.
See Lundy Bancroft. Why does he DO that? Inside the minds of angry and controlling men.
If we need to compare Princess Diana and Henry the VIII's wives, I think Catherine of Aragon would've been a better comparison.
But Catherine was a royal with no blood ties to Diana. Where Anne was from an upper class common family who's sister is related to Diana. I didn't agree with it either but after giving it thought I don't think I was a bad choice. Especially with what history has trashed Anne about it hard the think of her other than a woman who "manipulate" the king for the throne. Anne was discarded after not being able to give Henry what he wanted and he now wanted to now be with his "true love" Jane. Catherine was just married to him because her actual husband died (his older brother).
@@abandonrz I didn't dislike it either, I just thought Catherine's story was more like Diana, primarily that her husband divorced her because of another woman. But Anne Boleyn is a great choice too, especially since she was blood-related to Diana.
I couldn't disagree with you more - I think that awkward dialogues and "aggressively unintelligent" writing is what gives this movie contrast and depth, which I think is what the whole movie is about.
The contrast of the cold castle and foggy atmosphere - the opposite of what Diana is longing for, which is love and laughter and in the end, help. Because Kristin Stewart is overacting in this movie, completely! It is so harsh and almost whispery all through out the whole movie - for a reason. The audience is almost annoyed with her - why can't she put herself together and do this for at least her children? but her mental illness is seen as an addiction, like a drug she keeps returning to, because this is the only thing that can give her comfort, the only thing that will keep her from going completely insane - and this is shown SO WELL in this movie!!! She is sometimes seen as really mean, for example to her new dresser, and rude to some of the staff and the people around her - she is so sick with her illness and so human. And this depicts the contrasts and why the aggressive dialogues are so important and a part of that! I think that you, as part of the audience, is supposed to be annoyed with this manuscript and the dialogues, and Diana - it is the point of it. She is depicted as crazy, because she feels like she is. She feels repressed and so lonely and insane - this movie is from her perspective.
Almost everything in this movie is somewhat of a contrast - to the colours she is wearing, ALL the overload of food that is made ALL the time, literally the first scene where the guards and kitchen people almost have a choreography of how they unpack and pack their stuff - so harsh and military, how cold the castle is (which they keep mentioning), even the fast food in the end, THE MUSIC!!! the music is so tension-filled and weary and so dark and beautiful - filled with contrasts.
I really do think that this movie was art and a masterpiece. Agree to disagree maybe? : )
Completely! This inner conflict of her wanting to be there for he children, but not being able to. The constant silent dictatorship of her freedom is the big struggle for her, as it is just that - silent. This movie showcases the culmination of her fragility as a result of a constant pressure to perform, both for the press and in her private life. She did have bulimia in real life, but her regurgitation of the royal food can also be seen as a symbol of her trying to digest and consume this lifestyle, but ultimately not being able to (think of the the scene with the pearls) and of her needing to swallow shame of who she is and her husbands infidelity.
Her acting like a child and, to some, being immature is a symbol of her childhood that she is desperately trying to return to, emotionally and physically (visiting the house).
I do agree that the references to Anne Boleyn were a tad bit overdone, that is precisely the point of the movie and its style. Dramatic to show her inner battle with her instincts in this very caged enviroment. Like a desperate animal.
@@fannyenquist4543 wow! exactly my thoughts - the pearl scene where she she tries so hard to swallow this shame, and yet overcome her fragility and not seem insane and crazy. Her trying to return to her childhood, her innocence and trying to find a way to her immaturity. So well said!
Completely agree with you! 👏🏼
But she was a real human.....it feels gross to treat a real human this way
Diana was hardly like Anne Boleyn … more like Catharine of Aragorn or Caroline Brunswick
You aren't the only one bit liking Spencer, the fake way they portray her making her to be a bratty lunatiy is abhorrent. They think us stupid or that we have forgotten what was said before and after the divorce?
The scene when she asks where she is is cringeworthy. Not a good start. After that, throughout the film most of her lines are annoyingly snarky. I came out of the theater thinking “Spencer”portrayed Diana as not very nice and totally self-focused.
I know! It looks like she's trying to hit on the person she's asking, like some really awkward flirting. Like asking for directions is an excuse to score a phone number or something. I cringed so hard.
The odd thing with the KFC ending is that actually if she gone to a generic fish and chippy it be more British and more "commoner" food then KFC cause like every small town in UK has at least 2 fish and chippies. So would have also fit the idea of her "reclaiming" her British roots.
I remember reading somewhere that said Diana's favourite fast food chain was KFC, so it wasn't really product placement
I tried looking for this factoid and all I could find was that supposedly she would sometimes take the boys to McDonalds. but apparently KFC just released a Diana-inspired sweater to coincide with the release of Spencer, so it was definitely product placement 😭
Didn’t like the movie was boring and hard to stay awake watching it
💯💯
as someone who is foreign and don't know literally nothing about Diana, I watched for Kristen Stewart and it felt like it was a ghost story of a lonely woman stuck in a family she hated, but the narrative repeating itself so much.
it's a beautiful movie, i was charmed for the cinematography but the overall felt "eh, ok".
I didn’t like Spencer, but I did like Kristen Stewart’s performance.
I thought the end of the movie was good if it had been the end to a different movie and not about Diana Spencer. But like a Hallmark Christmas movie or something.
I thought it was just a bunch of reactions nothing more was very weird in general. Nothing like Diana just Stewart with mommy issues in general all you see with Kristen Stewart.
I’ve read she really liked to take the kids to kfc, specifically kfc. If that makes you feel better. Thanks for saving me sitting through a bad movie. Kristen Stewart is always Kristen Stewart to me too. 😂
A lot of this review falls under “The movie does a great work of showing the themes the movie wants to get across, but I didn’t really like the way they did it” also some parts of the review is “I’ve got no problem of the movie not being a documentary but I’ll definitely nitpick every part that wasn’t historically accurate.” I suggest rewatching the film and maybe leave your preconceived assumptions from the screenwriters. I don’t mean any hate, just giving my opinion.
What's wrong with "the movie does a great work of showing the themes the movie wants to get across, but I didn't really like the way they did it" as a criticism? I think "decent idea, bad execution" is a perfectly valid critique. For the record though, one of my problems is that I DON'T like the themes they're trying to get across- I found them hamfisted and uninteresting. I don't like the execution either.
I also think I make very clear in this review what my intentions are by criticizing the historical accuracy. Like I said, I don't need it to be a documentary, but if it's going to invent almost all of its content, often with seemingly no real reason behind changing details and not even yielding a good, engaging result (in my opinion of course), then for me, it doesn't justify all of the changes it made. Take a movie like Gothic by Ken Russell; that's a film based on historical events that takes huge liberties with actual facts. However, I still love it because it uses historical inaccuracies to create a unique and entertaining narrative. There's nothing inherently wrong with taking creative liberties in a historical story, I just don't think this one executes it well enough to justify it.
I suggest rewatching the review and maybe leave your preconceived assumptions from the reviewer.
@@jane-mulcahy I guess we just don’t share the same opinion, I think the themes and historical changes the movie has makes for a better more impactful movie, and you don’t. And that’s ok. For the record this is the first time I’ve seen any of your vids so no preconceived assumptions from my part. Btw thank you for the movie recommendation
I agree. The only perk i saw was maybe costume design? The writing is like a cheap cliche all through.
I love the way you break down this movie! As a future director I dissect filme and I’m pretty snobby. I look for creativity, historical accuracy, emotional depiction, camera style and overall story telling. I’m not lying, I fell asleep 2 times and turned it off the 3rd time. It was utterly boring. Some costume design irked me ( the scene in the pantry with her jeans and silk tank top) and overall portrayal of Diana’s character. They made her weak, mousey and anxious in ever single scene. An oddball. She wasn’t like this. Of course she had depression and anxiety of her life in royalty but she wasn’t this overall anxious person to every person like the maids. We don’t know her personally but it was so exaggerated and offense to be honest.
And the voice acting was atrocious. I know Kristen isn’t British but this wasn’t good. It’s breathy and sounds nothing like Diana
I think the direction, the cinematography, and the general story are pretty strong. But those weird little moments of dialog, like her with her dresser and the tamed horse scene, have no depth and distract from the story I believe the director originally imagined.
Just came out of the cinema and my god you are the only review speaking my mind! Such a shame because I was hyped from the good reviews to go out and see it and got massively let down by the whiplash fever dream borderline offensive movie this turned out to be
I love Kristen Stewart and her acting here was really good the directing was beautiful it’s just the choices by the writers that turned this into a very weird watch 😕
The only good Diana media is from the You're Wrong About podcast because they're the only ones who mention that one time she pushed an old lady down the stairs.
big disagree.
that's okay! thanks for listening to my take anyways.
Ok so I'm not the only person who didn't like this movie. I was starting to think everybody was crazy lol. I didn't make it through the film because it was incredibly boring. But this is a great review.
Thank you, I wanted to like it but I agree with everything you say. It was very uncomfortable to watch and not because of her true story, but because it all felt too stupid and forced. The redeeming quality: the shower.
Plus why She be taking to her Father's coat when,last time cheeked Her Father was still alive in 1991? Why not call your Daddy on the phone for Christmas lol!
100% not overrated, it is really an incredible work of art.
Made Diana look crazy but Okay coming from a Son of a Gradmother that was excited for Diana movie's/her Life etc....
Yea she def looked crazy in Spencer
Suicidal do i need to say anymore
@@BlazedGrenade hate to break it to you but real life Diana was suicidal …
generally, i enjoyed watching this while trying to relax on a plane 😆 i appreciated the surreal take on this after watching so many stiff and stodgy bios and adaptations. kstew was great in disappearing into the role at some parts but then she'd do these exaggerated mannerisms and it took me out, so i def agree with your tag on that. and that kfc ending??? BRO.
I've followed Diana's story for decades, this movie goes over board with art and misses the interesting person and fascinating story of her reality. All the overboard art misses by miles. They didn't need to dramatize her. As history has proven her story has fascinated millions all over the world for more than half a century. This movie was just weird.
This is exactly how I felt about this movie I feel very seen
I've watched this review like 6 times. I find myself quoting your dialogue lol. "Isn't that profooound" is my fav one ☝️
Watch the Crown. That’s the statement. That’s it.
The dance sequences were disturbing
Spencer wasn’t that great a movie but The Crown is actually a really good show. I love it
I actually had no idea who Anne Boleyn was until I watched this movie so I guess it was made for people like me 🤣🤣
TRUE
I think the dresser homosexual loves plot elements is a reference to Diana support of LGBT
I didn’t like her just bopping around and the Lindsay Lohan sounding accent.
The comparison to Anne Boleyn is necessary. She’s contextualizing herself. She isn’t a normal woman in a normal position. She’s a princess married to a (soon to be) king. The paranoia she feels is what Anne probably felt realizing she could not be saved or spared because there was a bigger royal agenda. And reading about it in a book… Di will be written about in history books. She will be reduced to this. It’s a particular sense of anxiety that only she can fathom.
Yes we all know Anne Boleyn and her tragedy but imagine how Di would have interpreted it? The comparison asks if we can reconcile the disparities in their timelines and comprehend how it must feel to be under the scrutiny of history and completely without control. How singular yet similar this feeling would have been to Di. It’s horror. She feels the conspiracy around her and having a historical precedent for regicide must only amplify this terror.
As for Timothy Spall’s character helping her by leaving the book. I read it as he was leaving a cautionary tale for her. It wasn’t a sign to run… it was a sign to submit else you will be disposed of. Akin to Thomas Moore who had facilitated the charges against Anne Boleyn.
His metaphor on the steps about the wild horse was meant to be on-the-nose. And that’s why it ended with the guy shot in the head. Yes Diana is the wild horse in this metaphor, but we never find out about its fate because the person telling the story died protecting Queen and country. He’s saying how things are bigger than how she feels and what happens to her. Royalty is a necessity because that’s what drives the people. Whether she lives or dies the monarchy must carry on. He’s the history and scrutiny… and yes the antogonist. That’s why he’s weighing people in the beginning. Literally recording figures to be documented.
I think your review reads “I know this stuff and it’s too accessible”. Considering this movie claims to be a fable not a biopic it’s superfluous whether it’s historically accurate. We can’t actually know what the events of that Christmas are… however we can make presumptions and make our best guesses and stories, as historians are oft to do. As we are all privy to public perceptions of very public figures, it is our right to surmise their character. Obviously some shit went down in this family so who’s to deny Diana wasn’t posted up in her abandoned house throwing pearls down the stairs contemplating suicide.
As for the whole Sally Hawkins love profession… kinda weird. But was the intimacy and affirmation Diana needed. I think this would have worked better if there was some more focus on her estrangement and potential heartbreak over Charles.
Might I remind you despite this seemingly happy and tonally dissonant ending, we know what ultimately happens. As the informed viewer we know this is still a tragedy.
Sure, but I don't see why any of that necessitates being hamfisted and unsubtle. That's my main issue with the movie.
33 performances🕊 Hmmm Lady Di didn’t like it herself it seems…
Well said. I haven't seen it but wanted to. Was definitely hoping for some more subtlety. Would you say it's overly American-ized? Or is that too simple of a distinction?
I don't know if it's Americanization, since the offending screenwriter is British! But in general I do think America's media superiority complex has definitely contributed to global film discourse getting stupider- so I wouldn't discount it.
Personally I found this film difficult to watch. I like Kristen Stewart but something was off about her the whole film. She doesn’t come across as natural at all and is over exaggerated every time she opens her mouth. Way too obvious that it’s an American actor playing a Brit.
Even fantastic acting can't save a slow drawn out story where you inevitably know the end. I like the Anne Boleyn stuff, but even then, it was trying too hard without putting as much focus on people other than Diana.
Only reason to watch The Crown is to watch the performances, also the changing cast is fun. I only started it to watch Olivia Coleman as she's my favorite actress but I have yet to trudge through to her
The Crown is really well done. I didn’t like Diana’s portrayal but everything else is good.
I also thought the musical wasnt super good
What they failed to do in Spencer is have the movie out near the Super Bowl so they can have it with the other ads. Lol
I understand she was a loving person and that she really suffered but I’m not into the whole Princess Diana thing. She’s not what I think of when I think of princesses. With all due love and respect❤
KS talks in such an airy, huffy, breathy style, Diane doesn't even talk like that. But, I am headed down to KFC....
Listen I’ve never seen this movie… but you haven’t had KFC until you had it in England. Honesty, I get why they would end the movie there 🤣🤣🤣
Thank you for making me feel not insane. My friends all loved it and I thought the writing was heavy handed and atrocious