Pretty Red Dress

(Dionne Edwards, UK, 2022)

Set in a largely black community of South London, this debut feature of Dionne Edwards (following acclaimed shorts and TV productions) is a crowd-pleasing entertainment extolling the virtues of warm hearts and open minds. It’s like very many somewhat bland and formulaic but nonetheless stirring social issue movies issuing from UK or (for that matter) Australia.

Travis (Natey Jones) is fresh out of jail; he tries to continue his good relations with partner Candice (Alexandra Burke) and teenage daughter Kenisha (Temilola Olatunbosun), but things are subtly amiss.

Each member of this family unit privately struggles with a changing orientation in their life: Candice dreams of showbiz success as a Tina Turner imitator; Kenisha explores her burgeoning sexual desires; and Travis, while clashing with his brother Clive, finds himself irresistibly attracted to Candice’s sparkly new red dress …

The film is winningly queer in the sense of being indifferent to fixed identity-types (whether straight, gay or trans) and rigidly causal explanations of why people become whatever they are.

Instead, the central question of the story is how each of us can manage to sort out what is useless, dead-end fantasy, as distinct from truly finding the core of oneself. There’s a slightly pinched note of compromise or even conservatism in that Occam’s Razor formulation, but (as they say) that’s entertainment!

Pulsing with great Motown tunes and alternating between dramatic clinches and comedy relief, Pretty Red Dress is shot in a straightforward manner that pays full homage to the talents of its cast.

© Adrian Martin 26 December 2022