Director: Jamie Crawford
Cast: Prince Andrew
Have I Seen it Before: No, but I’ve been watching a lot of The Crown lately, so my attention sort of drifted toward it one afternoon while working on some other projects.
Did I Like It: Which brings up an interesting question: Should I be writing a review of this? When I started these reviews in 2018, I decided I would write a review for any feature-length film I watched and for which I hadn’t already written a review. TV movies would certainly count*, and streaming only is a foregone conclusion Since I now a have a legit popcorn supplier and outside of film projected screenings (I won’t hold my breath), and all of the pleas of Nicole Kidman are just so much words, theatrical-only is feeling like the exception, rather than the rule.
But what about something that clearly—with just a few cuts—could have been a news channel special, and a tabloid-y one, at that? The thing even stalls out for act breaks, even though commercials are nowhere in sight, after I indulged in a thorough “ad experience” to defer my future ad breaks.
The film is fine, for what it is. It didn’t reveal anything particularly new about the Duke of York, Jeffrey Epstein, or any of the other figures in the story. It had no access beyond a few talking heads and reels (that should probably be gigabytes) of b-roll.
Ultimately, I can’t make heads or tails out of why I watched the movie at all. Maybe I needed something on in the background while I was trying to get some things, done, and this coincided just enough with my watching of The Crown on Netflix to fit the bill. Maybe I’m so much more open to the idea of taking in whatever Peacock has to offer me, now that they will be the ones bringing us the long prophesied Community movie**. Anyway, I watched the whole thing, and here is a review.
*The films of Ken Burns, RKO 281 (1999), It (1990), Salem’s Lot (2004), and The Shining (1997) (they were all on the same disc set) have all been reviewed, and were released on TV initially. I did not hesitate a bit in reviewing those. I even admire some of them a great deal.
**Did I buy a Honda the year they under-wrote large portions of Greendale’s sixth season? Do I still use Yahoo! on occasion? Yes. Yes, I do.