Pretty Red Dress | Dir: Dionne Edwards | ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Set in South London, the film opens with an energetic rendition of Tina Turner’s You Shoulda Treated Me Right. Written and directed by Dionne Edwards, it explores expectations of Black, working-class masculinity and the harm done by society’s rigidly binary gender expectations.
Candice (Alexandra Burke who won British television’s X-Factor in 2008) is auditioning for a new West End musical about Tina Turner while working long hours at the local supermarket to support her family.
Her partner Travis (Natey Jones) has just been released from prison and is trying to come to terms with everything, with the help of alcohol and weed. The only employment he can get is washing dishes in the restaurant belonging to his successful, domineering and rather nasty elder brother.
At the same time, their teenage daughter Kenisha (Temilola Olatunbosun) is confronting multiple battles at high school. She is challenging gender expectations in the way she dresses, taking steps towards first love and getting into trouble for fighting bullies.
The star of this film is a sparkly, beaded red dress that Candice wears to shimmy through her audition song Proud Mary. Hanging on the wardrobe in their bedroom, Travis can’t resist the temptation to try it on when no one is home. But as it tempts him on more than one occasion, he is bound to be discovered.
Despite Tina Turner’s upbeat music threading through the film, there is continual tension that secrets will be exposed and the shame will be unbearable. Adding to the tension, Travis is able to go from being vulnerable to having violent outbursts. He actually admits to not knowing what is going on other than he just feels like being pretty sometimes.
Pretty Red Dress screens as part of the 2023 British Film Festival which runs from Wednesday 1 November until Wednesday 29 November at Luna Leederville, Luna On SX, Palace Cinema Raine Square and Windsor Cinema.
Lezly Herbert
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