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		  Wicked Little Letters (8/10) by Tony Medley 100 minutes R It’s hard to believe when you watch this, but it 
		actually occurred in a little English village called Littlehampton, and 
		it did cause a national sensation. It’s the story of two neighbors, 
		Edith Swan (Olivia Colman) and Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley). Edith and 
		others start receiving profane offensive (indeed, wicked) letters and 
		Rose gets blamed for them. Rose is a newcomer to the village and lives with 
		her daughter Nancy (Alisha Weir) and boyfriend Bill (Malachi Kirby) next 
		door to Edith. Rose is raucous with a truly nasty mouth. Edith, on the 
		other hand, is prudish, the daughter of a tyrannical puritanical father, 
		Edward (Timothy Spall) with whom she lives. The only person who comes to 
		Rose’s defense is Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan), who is, herself, going 
		through terrible discrimination, being the first female police officer 
		in history in Sussex. Brilliantly written (Jonny Sweet) and directed (Thea 
		Sharrock), Rose’s defiant attitude provides much of the comedic parts of 
		the movie. I am a big admirer of all three stars, Colman, Buckley, and 
		Spall, and all give sparkling performances. This is clearly a feminist movie because all the 
		male characters are presented in a negative light. The police are all 
		male, biased and sexist, and the protagonists are all female. In fact, 
		with the possible exception of Bill, there is not one male character who 
		is not a heavy. I downgrade this somewhat due to the offensive Woke 
		presentism used in the casting of one character. This occurred in the 
		1920s but one of the judges in the trial is black. In fact, there was 
		never a black circuit judge in England until Barbara Menshah was 
		appointed in 2005, more than 80 years after these events take place. 
		Historical movies should reflect things as they were in the time when 
		the events take place. It’s fine to have diversity in casting, but it’s 
		not fine when the casting ignores the actualities of the time and place 
		of the film. Such castings are jarring. I suppose if Hollywood were to 
		remake Patton, we might expect the General to be played by 
		Jennifer Lawrence or maybe Kimura Takuya or Jamie Foxx. The people who 
		make these foolish political decisions are agitpropping, and these 
		choices degrade what is otherwise an exceptional film.   
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