Up next, we have
Hotel Reverie.
The Premise
Brandy Friday signs up for the lead role in a movie reboot which is a computer-generated simulation of the original. This involves transporting her consciousness to a computer-generated environment.
The Characters
Issa Rae has an enjoyable outing as
Brandy Friday. This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I think she absolutely nailed this role, especially when her character is playing the role of Dr Alex Palmer. There's an easy charm about that smile, that just looks so effortless. And her portrayal of an actress who wants to break out of gender stereotypes, is pretty compelling.
Emma Corrin plays
Dorothy Chambers with a certain wistful sweetness that fits the story to a tee. A closeted lesbian who put herself into her roles on-screen. When I found out she also played Cassandra Nova in Deadpool & Wolverine, and Anna Harding (the pregnant wife) in
Nosferatu, I was knocked for a loop. Corrin is so versatile, I didn't even recognize her!
Awkwafina as
Kimmy. A fun role, though I feel like Awkwafina could have done so much more. Kimmy is basically the desperate and harried film exec who wants to get a movie made. I don't ever recall -not- enjoying watching Awkwafina on screen, but let's be honest, she was criminally underused here.
Harriet Walter brings a certain dry wit to the role of
Judith Keyworth, owner of Keyworth Productions. She's occasionally snarky and delivers reality checks in straightforward, unvarnished style. I really dug her delivery of the line "NFI - not fucking interested".
Stanley Weber as Dorothy's onscreen husband
Claude. Mustache-twirling villain.
Farid Larbi as
Inspector Lavigne. Another one-note role.
Elaine Claxton as dog owner
Madame Roban. Played this Karen in a black-and-white movie. She was fun to watch, in small doses at least.
Elliot Barnes-Worrell is in this episode for a few minutes Brandy's agent
Quarterman. He's played as cavalier, snarky and dismissive... and he looked like he would be a nice addition to the cast. Except, after his first few minutes, we never see him again.
Charlie Hiscock as bumbling techie
Jack. Hiscock plays him as a competent but complacent techie who gets whiny when he's stressed, and delivers some tech exposition.
Enzo Cilenti as
Ralph Redwell. He's mostly seen in flashbacks, the typical beefy suave protagonist of black-and-white film. Cheesy, but effective.
Tessa Wong as Asian girl writer,
Crystal. She plays a comedic role, at one point seeming more concerned with getting writing credit than saving Brandy's life. That was cute.
Magnus Brunn as
Dieter. He's the guy who reads the romance meter. Kind of useless, to be honest.
Danielle Vitalis as black girl tech,
Mika. Maybe it's just me, but it felt like she was making up the numbers. This is her second bit part in the Black Mirror series. The first was in
Joan Is Awful, and this time round the role feels even
less relevant.
Natalia Kostrzewa as nnamed delivery girl. It was an entertaining few seconds as she went all fangirl on Brandy only to reveal that she was actually more interested in her male co-star.
The Mood
It's a little humdrum at first, but soon we enter the black-and-white environment of the movie and ironically, things get pretty colorful from here as we switch rapidly between that environment and the "real world".
The narrative tension is raised towards the end, because this is
Black Mirror and we're never completely sure who survives the episode.
What I liked
The interracial lesbian relationship between brandy Friday and Dorothy Chambers. Yes, I know, I've complained in the past that
Black Mirror seems to insist on shoving interracial relationships down our throats, especially of the black-white variety. And this isn't even the first black-white interracial lesbian coupling, the first being
San Juniperio. But this one was different. The lesbian part was actually an integral part of the story. Brandy Friday's identity as a black woman was actually acknowledged by the plot. It didn't feel like yet another box-checking exercise and giving us an interracial lesbian couple just for the sake of it. If anything, it felt like this episode was taking shots at Hollywood for its overeagerness in race and gender swapping in its reboots.
The concept of
ReDream. It is pretty neat, and fits into the concept of generative A.I as we know it today. Not exactly, but pretty damn close! What with the main character's consciousness being implanted into a computer-generated simulation and all.
This was one of those shows where the women had the most to do, and the men were either relegated to
useless minor roles, or portrayed as incompetent buffoons. I should be annoyed, but in truth, I barely noticed it, even after watching the episode twice. It only just occurred to me, when writing this review. I mean, if any movie or show wants to go this route, they should absolutely take a leaf from this episode's book. It was done so masterfully, so subtly, as to be almost unnoticeable. Or maybe I'm just oblivious.
What I didn't
Dropping the USB device was relevant to the plot, because it resulted in Kimmy explaining things to Brandy (and to the audience) what ReDream does. But really, why bother when they could have Kimmy do that anyway, without that little plot device?
If
ReDream could do all that, why would they even need an actual actor? Or actress? This part was never made clear.
Conclusion
This was actually pretty good. There was the risk of the whole virtual reality angle being played out in the
Black Mirror series, but they somehow managed to make it feel refreshing. Never have I found a black-and-white setting so utterly compelling.
My Rating
9 / 10
Thoughts on Black Mirror Series Seven so far
I was blown away. I haven't felt this much optimism since Series Four. This feels like a return to form. Each episode so far, has been classic
Black Mirror stuff. It started with the gut punch that was Common People, took a slight dip with
Bête Noire, then came back strong with
Hotel Reverie. The first three episodes of this series have so far trumped the entirety of Series Five and Six!
I'm TFI! Totally Fucking Interested!
T___T
