🍿38: True Things

Bonus Edition: This week's SP features all the usual trailers, news and trivia - but also a reader-submitted review of True Things, starring Ruth Wilson.

May 26, 2022

“Well, I may be an outlaw, darlin', but you're the one stealin' my heart.”
Thelma & Louise, 1991

Our next guest needs no introduction…

First off, thank you to everyone who clicked the little heart and ‘Liked’ last week’s edition of Salty Popcorn. Remember when we said that extra engagement = getting noticed? Well, since then we’ve had a spike in subscriptions - so it must have worked!

Please remember to like this and all future editions of SP. It really does help! ❤️

Now, getting to the crux of this bonus edition, when long-term supporter Karen E. reached out with her own voluntary review, we jumped at the chance to publish an unscheduled edition of SP. While this week’s trailers and headlines have been curated by the usual suspects, Karen has provided the feature review and Fact of the Week.

Looking ahead to next week, when we’ll return to our usual bi-weekly schedule, Mia Rodriguez (founder of Love & Crumbs) will take the salty helm with her review of Alex Garland’s latest thriller, Men.

Mia has been sub-editing, proofreading and sound boarding for Salty Popcorn since the beginning, it’s about time she had her very own guest edition.

Now for the headlines:

Earlier this week, Neon released a teaser trailer for Brett Morgen’s David Bowie documentary, Moonage Daydream. Watch it here.
As Cannes 2022 comes to a close, IndieWire has published its list of top contenders for the coveted Palme d’Or. Read more.
Toni Collette, Naomi Ackie and Mark Ruffalo join the cast of Bong Joon-ho’s screen adaptation of the sci-fi novel Mickey7, set to star Robert Pattinson. Read more.
Everything Everywhere All At Once is on course to become the highest-grossing box-office film for indie powerhouse A24. Read more.
- And don’t forget to read last week’s review!

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Upcoming Releases

Vengeance

UK: TBC // USA: 29 July

The film follows a radio host from New York City (B.J. Novak) who attempts to solve the murder of his girlfriend and travels down south to investigate the circumstances of her death and discover what happened to her.

Believe us when we say that this comedy looks better than the title lets on.

Three Thousand Years of Longing

UK: 30 September // USA: 31 August

While attending a conference in Istanbul, Dr Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton) happens to encounter a djinn (Idris Elba) who offers her three wishes in exchange for his freedom.

Fact of the week

Just to be clear, this week’s feature, True Things, is not a sequel to the 1994 spy-comedy True Lies, which is one of Jamie Lee Curtis’s best movies.

If you’ve seen the film, you’ll certainly remember that dance but you might be surprised to learn that Curtis wasn’t given any choreography for the scene, nor had she ever rehearsed it.

What might come as even more of a shock is that when Curtis watched the film’s premiere, she did so with her father - the one and only Tony Curtis. Once you’ve seen the clip, you’ll understand why I think that’s absolutely mortifying.

It’s a little too racy to send anything more than the still below (you’ve been warned), but if you want to see the whole clip, click here.

Review: True Things

Star rating:

2 (out of 5)

Where to watch:

USA: Select Cinemas

UK: Select Cinemas

Runtime:

1hr 42m

Director:

Harry Wootliff

Blurb:

Bored by the daily tedium of her office job, Kate (Ruth Wilson) is sleepwalking through life when a chance sexual encounter with a charismatic stranger (Tom Burke) awakens her.

The review (Some spoilers):

Ever since my first glimpse of Ruth Wilson playing my all-time favourite heroine in Jane Eyre, I’ve LOVED everything she’s been in - though Toby Stephens as Rochester? Not so much. Sorry.

Focusing now (however reluctantly) on True Things, Wilson plays Kate, an ungainly Benefits Office clerk, who appears to have few positive forces in her life; apart from a soft-hearted father, whose main role appears to be meekly offering her boxes of homegrown vegetables. Yes, this really is the most memorable stuff in what’s supposed to be “a tense, psychological drama”.

On the other hand, Kate’s mother appears mean-spirited, leaving in a huff when Kate tells her to “fuck off out of her flat” - classic mother/daughter conflict, eh? Mum then pops up later in the film, bizarrely taking Kate around a kitchen showroom to stroke cabinet doors, because this is what middle-aged women like to do, right?

Returning to the real thrust (pardon the analogy) of it, Kate seems to have a number of ‘issues’, namely:

She’s often late for work – minus one point;
She has nothing to eat in her flat – minus two points;
She enjoys sex with men and/or showerheads – whoah, this woman is CRAZY.

The drama really gets going when the epitome of an ‘unsuitable man’, played by Tom Burke, arrives at Kate’s desk, fresh out of prison. She falls for him immediately and loses more ‘likeable protagonist’ points in the process.

Burke’s character is later listed as ‘Blond’ on Kate’s phone; although ‘Dirty Unwashed Blond’ would be more apt, as he definitely gives off an odour. Is Blond sexy? At most, he’s 30% Kurt Cobain and 70% post-90s Simon LeBon carrying a few extra kilos with an inclination towards sex in multi-storey car parks - but even that’s a stretch.

As Kate’s penchant for sacking off her job to have lots of unwise sex grows, she’s eventually told to ‘Go home’ by her boss, following a spectacular, hangover-induced session of vomiting - though one suspects that working a few shifts at that particularly dreary Benefits Office might have the same effect.

Oddly, the unlikely duo (somehow) relocate to Spain for Blond’s sister’s wedding (wait...what?), despite the heady passion heading for the lukewarm end of the bath, before the film gently drains away. As a long-term resident of resplendent ‘Royal Harbour’ Ramsgate, where True Things is set, I can categorically state that we have plenty of sunshine for the crew to bask in, so this seems like a pointless journey for all concerned. Much like the film.

Scroll down to see what’s in the next issue.

If you liked True Things…

The Souvenir

2019 | UK: Netflix // US: Amazon Prime ($2.99)

If you’re interested in seeing Tom Burke in something much more highly rated film than this week’s feature, then Joanna Hogg’s semi-biographical film, The Souvenir, will be right up your street.

In fact, there’s an SP review for the sequel, The Souvenir Part II.

In the next issue:

Men

UK: 1 June // USA: 20 May | Watch the Trailer