You Must Remember This

Thelma & Louise

07/06/23

Cineworld, Edinburgh

I bloody love Thelma & Louise. Doesn’t everyone? I live by Louise’s famous mantra, “You get what you settle for.” So now, thirty-two long years after its initial release, I’m beyond excited to finally get the chance to see it on the big screen (I was living in Germany when it first came out, and only had it on a grainy VHS). This 4k restoration is an absolute treat, the vast American landscapes bathed in sunlight and glorious in their bleak beauty.

The eponymous duo have planned a weekend away. Louise (Susan Sarandon) is pissed off with her boyfriend, Jimmy (Michael Madsen), and wants to shake him out of his complacency, while Thelma (Geena Davis) is desperate for a break from the shackles of her unhappy marriage to pig-about-town, Darryl (Christopher McDonald). It’s just supposed to be a couple of nights at a friend’s cabin – fishing, swimming, chilling out. But when a pitstop turns ugly and a thug called Harlan (Timothy Carhart) tries to rape Thelma, Louise sees red and shoots him. From then, they’re on the run.

The genius of Ridley Scott’s film lies in the ordinariness of its two heroines. They’re not high-flyers or especially skilled, and neither of them has ever asked for much. But Harlan’s transgression is the final straw: like most women, these two have endured a lot from men, and they know the law won’t help them. And, having crossed the line, they’re surprised by how much fun there is on the other side. As Thelma puts it, “Everything looks different now. You feel like that? You feel like you got something to live for now?”

In a way, it’s a shame that Callie Khouri’s magnificent script stands the test of time so well. I had hoped it would feel dated, that I wouldn’t feel the need to cheer for women calling out catcalls, or find myself nodding at the frustrating truth that nobody is going to find a man guilty of assaulting a woman who’s been seen dancing with him. But here we are in the future – and when a woman’s crying like that, she still isn’t having any fun.

Despite all the serious stuff, I’d forgotten just how funny this film is, with scores of laugh-out-loud moments. Thelma and Louise are both wonderfully sassy and unabashed, and there are likeable men here too, in the form of avuncular cop, Hal (Harvey Keitel), and the world’s most handsome and politely-spoken armed robber, JD (Brad Pitt).

This re-release is every bit as much of a treat as I hoped it would be, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. For a deeper dive into its magic, you could also listen to Episode 4 of the latest series of Karina Longworth’s excellent podcast, You Must Remember This: Erotic 90s, where she shines a light on its enduring legacy.

5 stars

Susan Singfield

Kit Finnie: Mabel & Mickey

18/08/18

Underbelly (Belly Dancer), Edinburgh

While not exactly what you’d call a crowdpleaser, there’s always room on the Fringe for a show like Mabel & Mickey, an ambitious and quirky look at a story from the early days of Hollywood. Mabel Normand was one of the greatest stars of the silent era and something of an innovator at a time when few women were able to make inroads in the film industry. Many would say that not much has changed since then…

In 1915, Normand produced, directed and starred in a very successful movie called Mickey, which she made for Mack Sennet’s studio, Keystone. But her career was subsequently tainted, both by her association with fellow actor Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle and his infamous rape trial – and by her mysterious relationship with film director William Desmond Taylor. The latter was murdered in 1922, just after he’d announced that he was to marry another woman. Normand was one of the key suspects and, though she was eventually acquitted, her career never recovered.

In this inventive monologue, Kit Finnie plays Mabel, who, when we first encounter her, is being interviewed by the police about Desmond’s murder. She occasionally breaks the illusion to talk with her tech person, reverting to her own accent and pointing out that she’s forgotten certain lines or that she needs to try something again – this is jarring, but then, it’s clearly meant to be. There’s also some nifty use of an OHP (retro tech equipment seems to be one of the recurring tropes of this year’s Fringe) used in conjunction with simple paper cutouts. Finnie even offers us the occasional bit of  poetry, which keeps winging its way onto the stage in the form of paper aeroplanes. Oh yes, and there’s quite a lot about pigeons too.

This is esoteric stuff that demands concentration, mostly because Normand’s story has largely slipped into the mists of time. Interested parties should seek out Karina Longworth’s excellent podcast You Must Remember This, which devotes a whole episode to Mabel Normand and makes a useful companion piece to this show.

This is an interesting attempt to do something a little bit different and really, that’s exactly what the Edinburgh Fringe is for.

4 stars

Philip Caveney