Review: 'Everybody's Talking About Jamie' is a love-filled LGBTQ musical about a boy who wants to hit the prom in drag.
An exuberant blend of industrial grit and fantasy glitter, the musical “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” is a bouncy, inclusive high school musical loaded with humor and heart.
It’s also a delightful introduction to Max Harwood, a winning young actor in the title role of Jamie New, a 16-year-old gay teen living in Sheffield, England. Jamie’s tough enough to stand up to his class bully, Dean (Samuel Bottomley), but sensitive enough to care that his father (Ralph Ineson) is a no-show at his 16th birthday party. Jamie’s parents have divorced, and Mum (Sarah Lancashire) covers up the fact that Dad, who has remarried, is a homophobe who wants nothing to do with his son.
At his birthday party, Jamie receives the gift he’s been saving up for: A dazzling pair of glittering red heels. Walking in those towering shoes gives Jamie confidence to pursue his dream of being a drag performer — a job that his 11th grade careers teacher, Miss Hedge (Sharon Horgan), dismisses as unrealistic. Jamie tells his only school friend, Pritti (Lauren Patel), a nerdy Muslim girl who gets mocked for her hijab, that he plans to unveil his drag persona at his school’s prom.
Jamie is eager to be a drag queen, but needs to learn how to be one. He finds Sheffield’s most drag-friendly shop, House of Loco — whose proprietor, Hugo Battersby (Richard E. Grant), recounts his days as Miss Loco Chanelle, the toast of Sheffield’s ‘80s club scene. A series of flashbacks, framed as Hugo’s VHS memories, show how the ‘80s queens stood up to police raids and survived the AIDS epidemic. (Young Loco is played by John McCrea, who played Jamie in the original London stage production.)
Jonathan Butterell, who directed the London stage production, proves himself a smart choice to direct the film, his first feature. Butterell captures the gray dinginess of working-class Sheffield, and offsets it with flashes of theatrical sparkle and razzle-dazzle that matches Jamie’s rainbow-hued take on his world. He also balances the comedy of Jamie’s school life with the dramatic arcs of the teen’s relationships with both of his parents.
With powerful supporting work by Patel and Grant, the real find of “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” is Harwood, who makes a stellar debut. Harwood shows Jamie as eternally optimistic, seeking glamour and paternal approval in equal measure, and his winning performance carries the movie on his slender shoulders.
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‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’
★★★1/2
Available starting Friday, September 17, for streaming on Prime video. Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, strong language, and suggestive material. Running time: 115 minutes.