I was eyeing "As We Like It" before the festival had even started. A crazy love adventure in a world, where gender borders do not exist? Sounds interesting, sign me in. The fact my lovely ex-girlfriend had watched it before and liked it only fuelled my excitement.
And holy shit, I was sure I'd enjoy this movie, but I didn't expect to love it this much!
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| If I were to make "Top 10 movies I've watched this year", "As We Like It" would definitely be number one. |
If I were to describe "As We Like It" with only one word, it would be "bubbly". It's fast-paced, full of bright colours and energy. The bubbliness is often amplified by animated overlays that either serve aesthetic purpose or are meant as jokes (like the mock video game interfaces when Orlando is taking part in boxing match and later, when he and Roosevelt are being chased). However, the most important thing is that this movie has almost no drama. While there are some conflicts between characters, nothing is serious and everything can be solved pretty quickly. Because of that, "As We Like It" is very light-hearted and just makes you feel good – a perfect film to relax to.
The "no drama" rule applies to a topic of gender too. Rosalind's transformation into Roosevelt is treated very lightly. She just has her hair cut, wears some stereotypically male clothes, uses he/him and bam, she's a man. All the time, Roosevelt is supported by Celia – they jokingly flirt with each other and make funny remarks. Orlando's attraction to Rose and later Roosevelt is treated in similar way. While first he's horribly confused when he realises that this mysterious guy looks and smells like the girl he fell in love with (which gets hilariously summed up with him looking right into the camera and commenting "But I prefer women!"), when later Roosevelt says that if Orlando woos him, Rose would fall for him too, Orlando has no problem with it. And I think it won't be a big spoiler if I say that in the end, the moral of the story is "love doesn't care about gender"?
Another scene related to the topic that I absolutely loved is one from the ending, when two secondary characters, a couple, are getting ready for an arrival of their child and go shopping together. They have a little argument if the baby will be a girl (so they should get pink stuff) or a boy (so everything should be blue). The conflict is solved by the shop assistant, who suggests getting everything in white, so "the baby will later choose by themself". I absolutely love what this scene suggests and how it ties with the whole movie. Because indeed, while we all are a certain gender, the gender presentation is something everyone chooses on their own.
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| And I think it's beautiful. |
The untraditional approach to gender doesn't end on the story, though. The cast is exclusively female. Yes, that includes all male roles: Orlando, his brother Oliver, Mr. Silver and others are all played by actresses. It serves as a nice inversion of a centuries-long theatre rule, which allowed only male actors to play. It's also a reference to Takarazuka – Japanese theatre revue specializing in lavish performances, where are roles are played by women.
The Takarazuka reference isn't the only thing that ties the move with theatre. The acting is actually very theatre-like: the characters react in overdramatised way, with exaggerated gestures and emotions. They also sometimes monologue or break the fourth wall. It all matches the not very serious tone of the film pretty well. You can also see how much actors had fun while filming.
While we are at the topic of fun: I absolutely adore this movie's humour. There's a lot of comedy here, including gags related to the fact Orlando has no idea who Roosevelt is. However, they are never offensive or make the viewer uncomfortable (and I'm saying that as a transgender person. Actually, the scene where Roosevelt goes to the public bathroom with Orlando and has to somehow mask the fact he needs to use a sanitary pad from him is my favourite one. The acting really sells it!). There's plenty of sexual comedy too, often very straightforward. I have to admit, I cackled watching Orlando (who gets a job as a delivery guy) trying to somehow fit a sex doll on his motorbike, with really poor results. And later scene with Orlando very suggestively cleaning Roosevelt's ears brought me to tears from laughing (again, awesome acting!). I loved it.
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| I don't know what my love for raunchy jokes says about me as a person... But let's be honest, I don't care. |
"As We Like It" also won my heart by being unapologetically queer. Apart from the gender topic and gender-bending acting, there's a lot of same-sex couples appearing on the screen. Actually, most of episodic characters are in same-sex relationships. They are always happy and in love and such positive representation warmed my heart while watching. As I mentioned earlier, there's no dramas, only love.
I think there's no surprise that I recommend this movie a lot. It's wonderful, extremely pleasant to watch and very entertaining. It's also very unique, with its bubbliness and queerness. To be honest, "As We Like It" is definitely one of the best movies I've ever watched. And I hope you all will enjoy it too!
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| Honestly, this film is love. Just love. |
Image sources:
All stills were screenshot by me from the official trailer and belong to Red Society Film and Swallow Wings Films.