Storytelling less than magical in ‘100 Nights of Hero’

Are you ready Then we shall begin This narration over an image of three moons hanging in the sky begins Julia Jackman s Nights of Hero which she adapted from Isabel Greenberg s graphic novel and directed It signifies that we re in for a level of heightened self-reflective fantasy storytelling and in fact the revolutionary power of storytelling itself is the beating heart of this film Jackman takes her own stylistic approach to Nights of Hero without replicating Greenberg s aesthetic You can almost instantly tell this fantastical film has a feminine touch in its colorful highly stylized modernist look and sound there s a certain girlish wit in the vibrant pink hues and the centering of women s narratives within the mannered compositions The setting is an ancient vaguely medieval England secluded cult-like neighborhood that reveres their god Birdman Richard E Grant in essentially a cameo and fashions their patriarchal society around the usual tenets controlling women producing heirs Young bride Cherry Maika Monroe is married to Jerome Amir El-Masry and though he insists they are trying to have a baby he is not Too bad she s the one who will suffer the consequences of failing to get pregnant Soon Jerome s hunky man friend Manfred Nicholas Galitzine turns up and the two men engage in a cruel bet Manfred has nights alone in the castle to seduce Cherry while Jerome is away on business If he fails he has to find a baby for Jerome who is uninterested in sex with women If Manfred succeeds he gets the castle But if Cherry strays she hangs It s a lose-lose situation for the wife as expected Cherry has one person on her side Hero Emma Corrin her cunning maid who distracts Manfred from his goal by telling the story of three sisters who engage in the sinful wicked and absolutely forbidden for women pleasure of reading and writing One of the sisters Rosa Charli XCX is married off to a merchant who soon discovers her witchcraft Every night Hero tacks on a new chapter of the three sisters their story interwoven with Cherry and Manfred s while we discover that Hero is a part of the League of Secret Storytellers women who collect stories and weave them into tapestries their women s work hiding their true intention while the stories spread from ear to ear The issues here are basic and elemental the trials and tribulations of sex marriage fidelity and procreation Though brides are trapped in castles and men in bird masks want to burn the witches this story is not so out of our time or place However there s little nuance to the storytelling of Nights of Hero itself It feels a bit like feminism for tweens a young-adult approach to explaining how the liberation of minds is necessary for the liberation of women s bodies it is blunt and obvious which is to the film s detriment There are scarce gaps to fill or threads we pull together on our own and its quirky opulent aesthetic can only sustain the exercise for so long As our interest wanes over the program of this -minute modernist fable Manfred starts to slip away natural for a folktale that seeks to decenter men Unfortunately Galitzine s screen presence is just too powerful to ignore and we notice his absence Perhaps it s that Manfred is so swaggeringly confident Galitzine s embodiment of fluid sensuality standing in stark contrast to Monroe s stiff anxious breathy performance as Cherry The majority of powerful image of the film which is made up of fascinating images is of Galitzine covered in blood as he hauls a freshly killed stag home for lunch If the film is about women discovering their own pleasure and sensuality outside of men they shouldn t have made Manfred the largest part appealing and earthy character on screen While Nights of Hero sports compelling actors and beautiful visuals often best seen in montage animated by editing its storytelling about the power of storytelling is unfortunately less than riveting The urgency of the message remains but the delivery leaves something to be desired Nights of Hero contains sexual material chosen bloody images and language NIGHTS OF HERO Rated PG- At the AMC Boston Common Alamo Drafthouse Seaport and suburban theaters Dec Grade C