The Last Duel

⭐ 8.5/10

(Originally written by Joseph)

Ah yes, Tim beat me to the punch here, and really it's too bad because I don't really have many unique thoughts on it besides. In fact, I'm quite sure all the good parts of his review were plagiarized from our conversation about it.

I too really loved this movie for a number of reasons. It looks great, the cast is fantastic (though very unexpected for a medieval France setting), and it has lots of my favorite kind of violence (swords, blood splatter, etc.). I really loved a lot of the costume/makeup/haircut choices, and I loved the French names, though am I the only one who thinks it's weird that they had Americans doing French characters but using British accents? Why is British the standard accent for everything old!? If you're not doing French accents, just be American!

Anyways, the real highlight of this movie is the unique way of telling it from three different perspectives. I thought that it would be an interesting thing of making each character sympathetic and understandable, but they very much didn't do that. By the end there is a very clear moral hierarchy, and you really feel for Jodie Comer and her absolute powerlessness in what feels like a hopeless situation.

I like that we got a satisfying enough ending while still feeling true to the times and not glamorizing a situation with no great possible outcomes. I definitely think this movie was trying to make a point, but I'm glad they put the story first and it didn't feel like a lecture, making it all feel a bit more organic while still delivering an effective message about how shitty history has been for women. So yeah, big recommend, just know it is pretty violent, and trigger warning for pretty graphic sexual assault.