Film Review: MLE
To be honest, being faced with the prospect of sitting in a dark cinemas on arguably London’s last sunny day of the year to watch a small independent film I knew nothing about, didn’t fill me with enthusiasm! Brutal, but honest. I need not have feared as within 5 minutes my down beat aura was vanquished by Sarah Warren’s (writer, director, and lead actress) kooky, off beat comedy, MLE. The film is a farcical spy, thriller which follows struggling actress “Julie Roberts” (definitely not Julia Roberts) who after loosing her one big break, is forced to take on some seemingly harmless spy work to make ends meet in London; but her life quickly.
Slightly worryingly the premise of MLE is based on a true story adding greater depth to this frivolous romp. The film highlights the struggles and also the exploitative nature of the acting industry, which lends this film a strong feminist agenda. I toyed whether I should mention the “F” word as it has strong connotations of men hating women with terrible fashion sense, which this film just isn’t!!!! It’s just so incredibly refreshing to see a fully developed female protagonist who awkwardly bumbles about, leaping from disaster to uncontrollable mayhem whilst trying to follow her artistic dreams and isn’t ashamed or guilty of her unusual love of cake, video games and puppets. Julie’s character is fun, intelligent with flaws and foibles that we love and cherish.
Although the comedic content is inconsistent and in some points the energy drops, I’ve never watched a film, which connected with me so strongly and made me feel like I wasn’t alone in this world (I admit it, I’m a struggling actress too). At one point I literally had to stop myself from shouting at the screen “that’s me”, “that’s my life on screen”. MLE played all of my hopes, fears and dreams in front of my very eyes and voiced them loudly and more vividly than I ever could, which is the essential driving force behind film and storytelling.
My call to arms to encourage readers to view the film is somewhat redundant as I viewed the last public screening, but Sarah is a fresh, engaging new talent with a strong, artistic voice and ethos. I welcome her warmly to London (from her Canadian roots) and can’t wait to see her work her magic and to encourage her to continue battering down doors into the mainstream comedy world. Please support this fantastic new talent by checking out her twitter account @sardoubleyou for her latest projects and news.
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