100 Nights of Hero Review

From the very first shot, 100 Nights of Hero fits into a particular style of indie film that’s been emerging over the past few years. It’s difficult to track down those I haven’t seen, as there aren’t many and there’s no name linking them. But you know it when you see it. They utilize a vibrant, saturated color palette, extensive soft focus, and an impressionistic aesthetic. Their reality is comparable to our own, but “wrong” in some way that reflects back on our existence. The tech and/or wardrobes appear inspired by Dr. Seuss, and the stylized dialog would make Wes Anderson proud, as would the narration. The tone is absurdist yet decidedly earnest, making space for the story to be both wildly entertaining and deeply poignant. And frequently, they are proudly queer.

Adapted from Isabel Greenberg’s graphic novel of the same name, Julia Jackman’s sophomore feature is most nakedly a tale about the systematic oppression of women, filtered through the lens of bird gods and a planet with three moons and Jane Austen-coded romance. Cherry (Maika Monroe) has remained without child, despite being married to Jerome (Amir El-Masry) for six whole months! How scandalous. No one else but her faithful maid Hero (Emma Corrin) knows it’s due to her husband’s refusal to touch her. Faced with the threat of death (well, her death) if they don’t conceive in the next hundred days, Jerome makes a bet that Manfred (Nicholas Galitzine) cannot bed her in his absence. For which Cherry would also be put to death.

This puritanical order is enforced by the Beaked Brothers, a cadre of old men dressed in bones and feathers carrying out the will of their deity, Birdman (Richard E. Grant). For you see, this reality was created by Kiddo (Safia Oakley-Green) to be paradise, and to have no knowledge of its creator. This didn’t sit well with her father, who stepped in to leave his mark everywhere, transforming it into a world in which women are primarily vessels for childbirth, expected to be skilled at chess and falconry and needlepoint, and forbidden from learning to read, lest they practice witchcraft. The commentary on religion and the obsession modern conservatives have with forcing women to give birth is unmistakable. The Beaked Brothers drive every aspect of their lives, and it’s their outmoded laws that ensure Cherry’s death due to the callous men in her life and their treatment of her as simply ornamental.

In a place of such despair at the hands of self-serious buffoons, the role of the storyteller is incredibly important. They impart hope, give glimpses of foreign lands, and show the listener of how things might be. The opening narration (delivered by Felicity Jones) informs us of the importance of Hero to the future of this world, and we soon learn that her mother was co-founder of the League of Secret Story Tellers, so Hero has traveled far and wide to share and collect the stories of the oppressed. Stories of brave women who lost their lives, be it for daring to speak up, for being so bold as to trust a man, or for nothing in particular. Stories like that of Rosa (Charli XCX) and her sisters (Olivia D’Lima and Kerena Jagpal), which she slowly unveils to Cherry as a way to stymie Manfred’s advances and absurd displays of masculinity, disorienting the would-be suitor in its surreal distortion of time that causes days to pass in minutes.

With characters this repressed and constrained, so much is communicated by glances. Expressing, or even discovering, their real feelings is dangerous, so although it’s not rare for them to state their intentions, their true inner life is only visible in their eyes and body language. Despite the men being far more free to express themselves, they would never be caught dead being so vulnerable. That so much comes across so clearly from the very beginning about how all of these characters relate to each other is a credit to Olivia Grant’s excellent casting of lead actors who are so adept at subtle emoting. It’s why the evolution in the relationship between Cherry and Hero is not the least bit surprising despite wasting no dialog on its setup, and ensures a key moment in Cherry’s arc that comes about halfway through the film is completely natural.

These ideas are woven together wonderfully, with the narrative never straying so far from any that you’ll forget, nor diverting to them so frequently as to be distracting. Each reinforces the others, all bound together with a playful and quirky spirit that keeps you feeling light even when the plot takes some of its darkest turns. That said, the successful management of its various concerns leaves each of them with meat on the bone: there’s just not enough time to go satisfyingly deep. Interleaving them does yield some extra juice, as does the spectacular worldbuilding through narration and production design, but it leaves the overall message less fresh, despite being definitively delivered.

That the ending lands as an unfulfilled promise is the biggest hit against the film. Its intent is clear: it’s in conversation with the challenges faced by Rosa, and it demonstrates the power of storytelling to inspire. It draws a line through the various female characters, who find themselves in a variety of situations that differ only in specifics. And I must admit that in isolation, it’s a beautiful sentiment. But the reality of its execution and the larger context in which it sits highlights its lack of conviction, and the uncertainty of the script melting into tired tropes. It’s not a disaster, but it is a lackluster end to what is otherwise a wonderful fairy tale.

After Jackman’s disappointing debut Bonus Track, a queer coming of age mumblecore throwback, such a stylized story was an unexpected delight. While the approach isn’t unique, it’s forward looking, and manages to be more relatable despite its alien setting. Jackman being the primary screenwriter this time around could not help but result in a stronger connection to the material, even though its core was dreamed up by someone else. She had far more latitude to tailor the story to her taste and strengths, not to mention strong performers to faithfully execute it. Despite not coming together perfectly, it’s a great announcement of the talent she possesses, and should mark her as someone to watch in the years to come.