Movie Review

High society sons engage in international romance in Red, White & Royal Blue

The progression of LGBTQ+ romantic comedies in mainstream movies has been relatively slow in the long history of the medium, but once the dam broke a few years ago, the pace has quickened considerably. Films like Love, Simon and Happiest Season set the stage for films like Fire Island and Bros to go even further, and now Red, White & Royal Blue has delivered perhaps the biggest punch to date.

The setup for the film reads just like any number of cheesy Lifetime movies: Prince Henry of England (Nicholas Galitzine) and Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez), the son of U.S. President Ellen Claremont (Uma Thurman), cause a bit of an international incident when they cause the cake to fall at a royal wedding.

Already at odds with each other, they are forced to do a series of public relations sessions together, soon discovering that their feelings for each other are changing.

Of course, a romance between two high-profile people like them is not easy to pull off, especially for Henry given the notoriously conservative nature of the royal family. The two attempt to keep a relationship going by pretending to be good friends, but as any rom-com fan knows, it’s only a matter of time before their subterfuge is revealed…

Directed by Matthew López and written by López and Ted Malawer, the film is pure fantasy in all the best ways. The setup phase is worthy of the biggest eye rolls, but once they get past that, the story only continues to get better. Sure, you have to just go with the idea of a prince and the son of a president being able to avoid public attention, but the goofiness of pairing two people of high social status soon gives way to a great examination of the cost of the relationship for both of them. The relationship itself is treated with dignity, respect, and fun.

This is especially true in the case of Henry and Alex’s more intimate moments. Just as in Bros, there is no hesitation at letting the two men engage in multiple make-out sessions and actual sex scenes that, while not graphic, intimate certain acts with no ambiguity. There is also dialogue with sexual innuendo that makes the film even funnier than it already was.

The film also does a decent job including the secondary story of Ellen Claremont, a Democrat from Texas, running for re-election and having Alex run point on trying to get Texas to flip from red to blue. The implausibility of a female Democrat from Texas becoming president in this day and age, and of her flipping Texas, places the film firmly in the realm of make-believe, but, much like The American President or Dave, they sell it well in the film.

Both Galitzine and Perez are cast extremely well, with Galitzine perfectly embodying the upper crust nature of British royalty and Perez giving off a great cocky American vibe. Most importantly, they have real chemistry, which does more than anything else to make the film work. Thurman is hit-and-miss with her Texas accent, but she’s otherwise solid. Other standouts include Sarah Shahi, Rachel Hilson, and Clifton Collins.

Red, White & Royal Blue breaks out from an early rut to become a charming, interesting, and utterly romantic movie. It plays all the rom-com hits and plays them well, adding in the spice of social commentary to complete the idea of how normal a coupling like this should be to the world.

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Red, White & Royal Blue is now streaming on Prime Video.

Photo courtesy of Prime Video

Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine in Red, White & Royal Blue

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Movie Review

Denzel Washington brings new spectacle to the Colosseum in Gladiator II

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Paul Mescal in Gladiator II.

There are some films for which making a sequel is natural, and others where a follow-up is wholly unnecessary. Gladiator, which made both tons of money and was named Best Picture at the Oscars, told an impactful stand-alone story that ended with the protagonist dead and no real loose ends. And yet because there’s always more money to be made, here we are 24 years later with Gladiator II.

The lead character this time around is Lucius (Paul Mescal), a general in a North African army who becomes a prisoner of war when the Roman army led by Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) bests him and his troops in battle. Taken back to Rome, he is put in the pool of captured men forced to fight at the Colosseum for the amusement of twin emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracella (Fred Hechinger).

Lucius is controlled by Macrinus (Denzel Washington), an ambitious schemer who bets liberally on his prized fighter and always has an eye to move up in the world. Meanwhile, Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), the sister of Emperor Commodus from the first film, is now married to Marcus Acacius and has a unique connection with Lucius that is fairly obvious from the get-go.

Directed once again by Ridley Scott and written by David Scarpa, the film commits a number of sins throughout its 150-minute running time, the most blatant of which is that, aside from a few embellishments, it essentially tells the same story as the first film. Lucius, like Maximus, is a deposed military leader who’s out for revenge on the person who killed his family. Instead of one obnoxious emperor, there are now two. And the only way for Lucius to earn his freedom is to fight his way out.

Stories told in the same world can echo each other and, if done well, overcome those similarities. But Gladiator II is shockingly boring for a purported sword-and-sandals epic. Scott and his team try to introduce new elements to the fights, like a gladiator riding a rhinoceros or a ship battle inside the Colosseum (with sharks!), but most of the sequences are inert with no propulsion to them.

The action fails because none of the relationships in the film amount to much. There are stand-out characters like Macrinus and the twin emperors, but instead of creating antipathy or strong feelings of triumph or defeat, the story just kind of happens without any sense of excitement or importance. Much of that issue lies at the feet of Lucius, who simply doesn’t inspire in the same way that Russell Crowe’s Maximus did.

Mescal is a fine actor who’s done good work in more intimate roles, but he’s not up to the task of being an action star, at least not in this film. Any bombast he shows with the character feels forced, and the story doesn’t give him enough opportunities to counteract that lack. Washington, however, fills up the screen with his charisma, and it’s during his scenes that the film comes closest to being rousing. Quinn and Hechinger are a lot of fun as the twin emperors, but in the end they feel like retreads of Joaquin Phoenix from the original.

Any sequel should have a purpose that sets it apart from what came before, but Scott, Scarpa, and the rest of their team fail in that respect in Gladiator II. It’s a mostly lifeless film that delivers scenes that would be exciting if they had any kind of good story to back them up.

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Gladiator II opens in theaters on November 22.

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Movie Review

Denzel Washington brings new spectacle to the Colosseum in Gladiator II