Film Review: "Everybody's Talking About Jamie" May Not Hit All Its Notes but Its Star Shines
Movie musicals are having a moment. Perhaps it's due to viral TikTok dances, Hamilton fever, our desire to watch something fun and frothy in a time of crisis, or a combination of all three. Honestly, who knows. As with all film genres, there were a couple of hits and misses. The Greatest Showman transformed into an unexpected success thanks to audience support and word of mouth. In contrast, the Washington Height's smorgasbord In the Heights was a box office disappointment despite critic's praise of its talented cast. Likewise, flicks such as Prom and Dear Evan Hansen flew too close to the sun and burned spectacularly (to be fair, the jury is still out on Ben Platt's film). Nonetheless, studios are still churning out musicals whether we want them or not. Amazon Studios even caught musical movie hay fever with its release of, Everybody's Talking About Jamie. Though the musical follows the same tired tropes as the previously mentioned films, its callbacks to gay culture and Max Hardwood's charming performance are worth celebrating.
Based on the BBC documentary turned staged musical, Everybody's Talking About Jamie follows the eponymous character (Harwood) as he becomes a drag queen in his small English town. The musical romp begins on Jamie's sixteenth birthday. Lonely and desperate to make a name for himself, the teenager yearns to leave his small town and become a drag queen like the girls he follows on Instagram. However, Jamie has many obstacles ahead of him as one of the few gay teens in Sheffield. His eleventh-year teacher, Miss Hedge (Sharon Horgan), wants him to pick a practical career for his future. His father, Wayne (Ralph Ineson), wants nothing to do with his son. And his tormentor, Dean (Samuel Bottomley), makes Jamie's life as miserable as possible in school.
Fortunately, Jamie's fortunes improve when he receives a pair of sparkling ruby red heels from his doting mother, Margaret (Sarah Lancashire), for his birthday. Though hesitant at first, Jamie decides to find a dress to go with his shoes to reveal himself as a drag queen at prom. With the support of his childhood best friend, practicing Muslim Pritti (Lauren Patel), and his mentor, former drag queen Hugo (a brilliant Richard E. Grant), Jamie learns that being a drag is more than wearing a pretty dress. It's about starting a revolution.
Everybody's Talking About Jamie is a standard queer coming-of-age tale with little to no surprises. However, like G.B.F. and Love, Simon, Jamie's journey from semi-lonely gay kid to aspirational small-town drag star can potentially impact adolescent viewers. Jamie's path to becoming a local stage performer helps him come to terms with the sacrifices his elders made to ensure people like him have a future. For instance, Hugo teaches his young mentee that the drag community was behind some of the most pivotal moments in gay history, such as HIV/AIDS research and prevention activism. And as Jamie learns more about his community, he becomes more confident with who he is as a young gay teen. He starts holding his head up high as he walks down the hallway in his secondary schools, boldly wears make-up in public, and even stands up to Dean. Some of these scenes are too precious, particularly those that feature an actor belting out a ballad. Yet, the musical's message of self-acceptance is genuine.
The actors in Everybody's Talking About Jamie commit to their performances even when the script does not do them any favors. Not only does Hardwood capture the real-life figure’s mannerisms and quirks, but he looks like the spitting image of the teen – if not, a little more elevated version. The performer balances insufferable teen with youthful naivete too. Like many teens his age, Jamie is impulsive, prone to unnecessary outbursts, and unsure of himself at times. Still, it is easy to root for Jamie as his eyes light up when Hugo helps him complete his drag persona. And while Harwood is the star of the show, it is Lancashire's Margaret who brings the heart. She shows how parents can – and sometimes fail – at supporting their queer child. Though she means well, not telling Jamie that his father wants nothing to do with him adds tension between the mother and son. Of course, their drama resolves quickly. After all, it is a cheery musical.
Unfortunately, some of the antagonists in the film are painfully two-dimensional. Despite giving an admirable performance, Bottomley's Dean feels like a bully that belongs on Dennis the Menace than in a film set in the present. Everybody's Talking About Jamie tries to make Dean a sympathetic figure by showing us his fraught relationship with his father, but those moments are too few. Ralph Ineson also gives a one-note performance as Jamie's father. Instead of growing as a character, he spends most of the film spewing how his son disappoints him. With that said, Horgan gives a surprisingly layered performance as Miss Hedge, Jamie's school teacher. Rather outwardly attacking Jamie, she scolds the teen for not conforming to the norm, particularly when she catches him putting on eyeliner in the school's bathroom.
The musical numbers are also not all bangers. Many of the songs are catchy, thanks to Jonathan Butterell's directing and Kate Prince's choreography. Even so, some of these performances feel a little too High School Musical. "Out of the Darkness (A Place Where We Belong)" has the same "we are not so different after all" energy that "We're All in This Together" pulls in the Disney Channel Original Movie. And the film's inclusion of contemporary pop songs by Todrick Hall and Becky Hill feel like they belong in a different world. Hokey music aside, what separates Everybody's Talking About Jamie from High School Musical, is that the musical leans into its queerness wholeheartedly. "Don't Even Know It" includes a Boy George-inspired costuming, while “Work of Art” has a terrific black and white vogue performance. Jamie also rocks a pair of sparkling red heels that callbacks to the hit staged musical, Kinky Boots.
For those who are groaning about the influx of musical movies, the backlash will come as it did during the YA boom in the early 2000s. So, let us appreciate the musicals that are at least trying to say something important about the world. Jamie's second coming out as a drag queen may be stale for some viewers. For others, especially queer kids who live in restrictive areas, Jamie's story is aspirational. The songs in Everybody's Talking About Jamie may not always hit, but the performances and overall message of self-acceptance deserve an applause.
