Breaking into the scene from all the way across the pond, however, might feel a bit more of a stretch. Just ask Rose-Lynn Harlan (Jessie Buckley, following up on the tremendous promise she showed in last year\u2019s <\/span>Beast<\/span><\/i>), the cowboy boot\u2013clad, Kitty Wells\u2013worshipping Glaswegian at the heart of <\/span>Wild Rose<\/i><\/b>, director Tom Harper\u2019s (occasionally magical) realist ballad about a self-destructive young woman on the road to fame. Recently released from prison after serving a year for smuggling heroin, our young heroine\u2019s somehow still got some swagger in her step as she makes it back to her crumbling council flat, where her two young children nervously await their long-absent mother\u2019s arrival. Played to perfection by Buckley \u2014 who co-wrote a number of the soundtrack\u2019s songs and has the voice of a whiskey-tippling angel \u2014 Rose-Lynn is a wildfire: She burns bright, but she\u2019s unpredictable.<\/span><\/p>\n Perpetually garbed in her signature white fringed leather jacket, Rose-Lynn is both sustained and burdened by her musical gifts. Clearly this woman\u2019s got the raw talent (lord, can Buckley sing \u2014 no surprise to anyone who saw her start off her career on the BBC talent competition <\/span>I\u2019d Do Anything<\/span><\/i>), but she\u2019s irresponsible and prone to self-sabotage. Feeling trapped by her lot in life, she fumbles along recklessly, always looking for the easy route. She needs guidance, and she\u2019s quite certain she\u2019ll never find it cleaning houses in Glasgow. Life-sustaining glimmers of possibility flicker about here and there \u2014 something Harper and his cinematographer, George Steel, illustrate beautifully with their daydream-style interjections of movement and life into Rose-Lynn\u2019s mundane existence cleaning houses \u2014 but in her mind, it\u2019s Nashville or bust … and Nashville seems so far away.<\/span><\/p>\n She also needs a bit of luck, and she finds it in the form of Susannah (Sophie Okonedo), her wealthy boss who sees something in Rose-Lynn that Rose-Lynn has yet to see in herself. Susannah wants to use her industry connections to help Rose-Lynn <\/span>properly<\/span><\/i> pursue a career as a musician (to this point, Rose-Lynn\u2019s been content kicking around a local dive bar as part of the house band). The pair end up striking up a friendship that eventually proves to be just as vital to Sophie as it is to Rose-Lynn; in many ways, Sophie takes on the role of the dream-nurturing figure Rose-Lynn\u2019s long-suffering mother, Marion (played by the great Julie Walters), cannot be for her. Screenwriter Nicole Taylor kindly refuses to make any of these women immutable or one-dimensional \u2014 in fact, the decisions they make often surprise us, something that helps <\/span>Wild Rose<\/span><\/i> transcend its fairly conventional storyline.<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s also something mighty refreshing about watching a film that doesn\u2019t spend an iota of energy on developing some sort of romantic interest for its key characters. Like the great leading ladies of country music\u2019s past who comprise much of the film\u2019s soundtrack (from Emmylou Harris to Wynonna Judd), the women of <\/span>Wild Rose<\/span><\/i> are hardly ing<\/span>\u00e9<\/span>nues: They may make mistakes, but they\u2019re used to calling the shots and doing things their own way. (Speaking of which, the film\u2019s final scene has a sweet and understated reveal that really brings down the house.) <\/span>A Star Is Born<\/span><\/i>, this thankfully is not: It\u2019s Rose-Lynn\u2019s show. Who gets to make country music? Who gets to define what\u2019s authentic and what\u2019s appropriative? These questions have dogged alt-country […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":12025,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1381,340],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","category-movie-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/crookedc.png\")
<\/span><\/p>\nGrade: A-<\/span><\/h3>\n
1 hr., 40 min.; rated R for language throughout, some sexuality and brief drug material<\/em><\/h5>\n
\nJoin our mailing list<\/a>! Follow us on Twitter<\/a>! Write<\/a>\u00a0for us!<\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"