The White King

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Ben D 03/16/2022 A sweet animated opening and cool dystopian-fascist imagery cannot save The White King from being a boring, poorly acted film. It is actually jarring ($1) that Jonathan Pryce, one of the best and most underrated actors alive, is in this film. He's like Junior quarterbacking The Little Giants. He must've really liked the book (which you should probably just read instead). Anyway, "Homeland," our dystopian setting, is some sort of agrarian (*see impoverished), militaristic pariah state. However, besides some basic jingoistic jargon about patriotism and duty, we have no idea what this society really stands for. It isn't bound by race, as the population is multi-racial, and it isn't language, as some members have thick, indiscernible Germanic/Scandinavian accents, while others speak North American English (which sometimes slips from the actors' non-North American accents…). One of the most fun aspects of dystopian stories is the world-building, and here we only get some basics that would've really benefited from more detail. I don't like to shit on kid actors, but the scenes without any adults — which were many, as this is a coming-of-age story — were really bad. The scenes containing "The Twins" (Jeffrey & Matthew Postlethwaite), especially the "battle" scene, were particularly poor. But I don't just want to pick on the younger actors, because many scenes with adults also felt off. I can't tell if it had to do with the editing or script, but the interactions had low-budget movie quality — which I would take into account, had they not cast Jonathan f*cking Pryce! We also never really learn why Peter (Ross Partridge) is sent to the gulag — I'm sorry, but "for speaking out" is just not going to do it for anyone. That might be fine in the beginning, but we want specifics by the end credits. There are some nice shots and the setting keeps the film from being unwatchable, but I cannot recommend this film for even dystopian junkies like myself. Read the book, I guess. See more 01/19/2021 Totalitarian in the countryside, likewise the story meanders to nowhere with many side tracks. See more Paul G 12/22/2020 I guessing the budget was pretty small which explains why the dystopian story was on the sparse side. Its a odd film, several scenes added very little to the story - maybe they made sense in the book but not here. The ending is pretty poor as well. Overall, not great. See more 06/05/2020 Sci fi but a very close to realistic one . Basically in a communist run country . I’m sure it was a little off but that’s basically the gist. Kinda had a lord of the flies feel . I thought I would like this a tad more but in the end I still thought it was a good movie worth watching 2.8 See more 04/26/2020 I'm sure it was done with the best of intentions, but I just didn't see the point... See more 01/15/2020 You can have Jonathan Pryce do basically anything and it has heft. He is a bright spot in this unrelentingly grim, we talking "Russian literature levels of despair", "1984 but rural", "Hunger Games without any games" tale of an all powerful corrupt fascist state that is as ruthless as it is indifferent. The kid is okay in a Haley Joel Osment sort of way. Having "Mrs. Dursley From Harry Potter" was also a nice touch. She absolutely nails the eulogy scene. Good movie for our grim era. See more Read all reviews

The White King

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