Beau Gadsdon Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘Here’ (2024), starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright

November 2, 2024

by Carla Hay

Robin Wright and Tom Hanks in “Here” (Photo courtesy of TriStar Pictures)

“Here” (2024)

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Culture Representation: Taking place in Philadelphia from 1503 to 2022, the dramatic film “Here” (based on the graphic novel of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Native Americans and African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: The movie’s story shows what happens on a section of land through various centuries, including the conflicts and challenges of families who lived in a house that was built on the land in 1907.

Culture Audience: “Here” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and don’t mind experimental movies that are dull and disjointed.

Tom Hanks and Robin Wright (center) in “Here” (Photo courtesy of TriStar Pictures)

“Here” is an overinflated bore that should have been a brief visual arts installation instead of a feature-length movie. The story is too fragmented for character development. The visual effects make real people look like video game characters. “Here” has a much-hyped reunion of the director and the two main stars of the Oscar-winning 1994 blockbuster “Forrest Gump” for an entirely different story, but this reunion in “Here” fizzles instead of sizzles. “Here” had its world premiere at the 2024 edition of AFI Fest.

Directed by Robert Zemeckis (who co-wrote the “Here” screenplay with “Forrest Gump” screenwriter Eric Roth), “Here” is adapted from Richard McGuire’s 2014 graphic novel of the same name. “Forrest Gump” co-stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, who played a couple with a troubled relationship in “Forrest Gump,” also portray a couple with a troubled relationship in “Here.” The story concept of “Here” is simple, but it’s difficult to make a meaningful movie out of it. That’s because the story structure (which takes place over multiple centuries) is constructed as visual snippets of the lives of people who occupied a particular section of land in what would become the U.S. city of Philadelphia.

“Here” begins with eye-rolling pretentiousness by showing this section of land during an era when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Dinosaurs are seen galloping and charging through this land. During this brief part of “Here,” people might be wondering, “What is this? A dinosaur movie?” A montage then shows changing seasons and how the land evolved over the next centuries.

And then, the movie’s story officially begins in 1503, when an oak tree sapling begins to grow. The movie later shows that the oak tree was cut down in 1899. In 1907, a Cape Cod-styled house was built where the oak tree used to be.

Some people who hear about this movie might have the wrong impression that “Here” only shows the interior of a house’s family living room throughout various decades. That’s only partially true. Although the majority of “Here” consists of the interior living room scenes, the movie has many scenes that take place outdoors, before this house was built in 1907. These pre-1907 outdoor scenes are ultimately unnecessary and distracting.

These pre-1907 scenes take place in the section of land when it was an undeveloped wooded area. In 1609 and 1610, an unnamed man (played by Joel Oulette) and an unnamed woman (played by Dannie McCallum), who are both Native American, become a couple and have a baby. Their “courtship” consists of the man giving the woman a handmade necklace. That is all you will learn about this couple in this dreadfully shallow movie.

The couple is only shown hanging out in this wooded area. You don’t get to see where they live for shelter. You don’t get to see their personalities. You don’t get to see how they raise their child. You don’t get to see anything about their tribe or community. And you don’t even get to see them talk, because the “Here” filmmakers decided that the Native American characters needed to be completely mute in this movie.

Depriving these Native American characters of names and dialogue just reeks of filmmaker condescension, as if just showing these Native Americans in a few short-lived moments is enough to fulfill diversity requirements. It’s an appallingly tone-deaf approach to diversity. And it’s an example of how underrepresented people are often presented as “inferior” or “less than” the demographics who get the most screen time and dialogue in the average Hollywood studio movie.

“Here” also has intermittent scenes taking place in the 1700s to show portions of the life of Benjamin Franklin (played by Keith Bartlett), his wife Elizabeth Franklin (played by Leslie Zemeckis), their son William Franklin (played by Daniel Betts) and William’s son Billy Franklin (played by Alfie Todd). “Here” isn’t a biopic of the Benjamin Franklin family, so these scenes look jarringly out-of-place, especially since “Here” does a lot of non-chronological timeline jumping.

One minute, there could be a scene taking place in the house in the 20th century. The next minute, there could be a scene taking place in the wooded area before the house was built. There are superficial references to the Revolutionary War in the Benjamin Franklin family scenes. You will not be getting any history lessons from watching this movie.

In “Here,” Hanks and Wright portray a longtime married couple named Richard “Ricky” Young and Margaret Young. Most people who want to watch “Here” for the scenes with Hanks and Wright will be disappointed to see that these two stars are only in about half of the movie. The other scenes are for the characters who are in various timelines. Some of these other characters are family members of Richard and Margaret, while most of the other characters do not know the Young family at all.

Here are the characters who live in this house at various times:

Married couple John Harter (played by Gwilym Lee) and Pauline Harter (played by Michelle Dockery) are the house’s first residents in 1907. John really wants the house and persuades a reluctant Pauline that they should buy the house. John is enthusiastic about being a private airplane pilot in his spare time, so he later mortgages the house to buy a small airplane. John’s airplane pilot activities cause tension in the marriage because Pauline thinks it’s a dangerous hobby. Pauline is particularly upset when she finds out that John took their daughter (born in 1911) on the plane with him for a short ride.

Leo Beekman (played by David Fynn) and Stella Beekman (played by Ophelia Lovibond) are a free-spirited, childless married couple who live in the house from 1925 to 1944. The scenes with the Beekmans are competently acted but have no real emotional connection to the rest of the movie. All you will learn about this couple is that they have a fixation on a reclining, swiveling chair that they call a “relaxy boy chair,” and at one point in time Leo took partially nude photos of Stella to make some extra money.

Al Young (played by Paul Bettany) and his pregnant wife Rose Young (played by Kelly Reilly) move into the house in 1945. At the time, Al is 22 years old and a World War II veteran. It’s later shown that Al has undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and he abuses alcohol as a way to cope with his mental illness. Al has a moody personality that becomes volatile when he’s drunk. Rose is a dutiful and passive wife who has to cope with Al’s unpredictable mood swings.

Al, who grew up during the Great Depression, is constantly worried about money, which is why he took a stable job as a corporate salesperson. Their first child Richard, nicknamed Ricky, is born shortly after they move into the house in 1945. Al and Rose eventually have two other children: Elizabeth (born in 1950) and Jimmy (born in 1952). When Richard is about 16 years old, Al loses his job and has a period of unemployment, which causes turmoil in the marriage of Al and Rose.

Various performers depict the children of Al and Rose, at various stages of the children’s lives. The role of underage Richard is portrayed by Ellis Grunsell, Teddy Russell, Finn Guegan and Callum Macreadie. Lauren McQueen has the role of young adult Elizabeth, while Grace Lyra, Jemima Macintyre, Billie Gadsdon and Beau Gadsdon portray Elizabeth as an underage child. Harry Marcus has the role of young adult Jimmy, while Diego Scott, Logan Challis and Albie Salter portray Jimmy as an underage child.

Richard is very artistic and shows from a young age that he has a talent for drawing and painting. He especially likes to make portraits of his loved ones. Richard wants to be a graphic designer, but Al discourages this career and tells Richard that Richard should choose a profession that has more financial stability and requires wearing a suit in an office.

At 18 years old, Richard (played by Hanks) and his 17-year-old girlfriend Margaret (played by Wright) are in love with each other. The first time that Richard brings Margaret to his house to meet his family, she makes a good impression. Rose tells Margaret that Rose regrets giving up a career as a bookkeeper to become a homemaker. Rose advises Margaret to not make the same mistake and to pursue any career path that Margaret wants to have.

One night, when Richard and Margaret are alone in the living room, they have sex on the living room couch. She gets pregnant from this encounter. Richard and Margaret then have a quickie wedding in the living room in April 1964. In case viewers don’t know it’s 1964 in this scenes, the movie makes a point of showing that during the wedding ceremony, the TV in the living room is tuned in to the Beatles performing on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

In September 1964, Richard and Margaret’s first and only child Vanessa is born. Richard puts aside his dream to become a graphic designer and takes a job as a life insurance salesman to support his family, as they continue to live in this house that is owned by Al and Rose. Vanessa as a child is portrayed by Albie Mander, Eloise Ferreira, Eliza Daley, Elodie Crapper and Faith Delaney. Vanessa as a young adult is portrayed by Zsa Zsa Zemeckis.

Richard and Margaret are loving and devoted parents to Vanessa, but trouble is brewing in the marriage, beginning in the marriage’s early years. Richard keeps postponing plans for him and Margaret to get their own home because he says they can’t afford it. Margaret, who is a homemaker, offers to get a part-time job to help with the expenses, but Richard wants to be the only income earner for their family. Adding to the marital strain, someone in the Young family has a major health crisis in 1979.

While all of these issues are going on in the Young family, “Here” abruptly cuts in and out to scenes that happen before and after the Young family members are living in that house. It’s later revealed that someone in the Young family sold the house in 2005, but Richard and Margaret go back to visit the house in 2022, when the house is up for sale again. This visit is not spoiler information because it’s in the trailer for “Here.”

In 2015, a family of three move into the house: Devon Harris (played by Nicholas Pinnock), his wife Helen Harris (played by Nikki Amuka-Bird); and their teenage son Justin Harris (played by Cache Vanderpuye), who is a high school student. The Harris family has a housekeeper named Raquel (played by Anya Marco-Harris), who gets COVID-19 in November 2020. Don’t expect to learn much more about this family.

Just like in the scenes with the Native Americans, “Here” clumsily handles the scenes with characters who aren’t white. The Harris family scenes have a racially condescending tone to them because the most memorable scenes with the Harris family have to do with pointing out that this family is African American. When the Harris family first moves into the house, Devon comments on how this house probably used to be owned years ago by people who never thought a black family would live there. Later, “Here” has a scene where Justin gets a family talk about how to deal with racist police officers.

“Here” is so enamored with its concept of “scenes (mostly) from a living room,” this ultimately flat and listless movie fails to explore deeper issues and refuses to answer inevitable questions. One of the biggest unanswered questions is: Why is married Richard so stubborn about living with his parents when he knows it makes his wife unhappy?

Richard took a job as a life insurance salesperson so that he could support his family, but obviously the job doesn’t pay enough for him to feel financially independent. It’s not as if Richard and Margaret have several children to financially support. They only have one child. This isn’t a situation where Richard and Margaret stayed in his parents’ house for a few years after their marriage. They stayed for several years.

After a while, it just doesn’t ring true that Richard (who lives rent-free in his parents’ house) isn’t making enough money to save for a down payment and mortgage on a small house for his family of three. Richard doesn’t have any addiction or spending problems that would explain why he keeps using the excuse that he can’t afford to buy a home of his own. By having Richard and Margaret “stuck” in the house for more years than what Margaret wants, it looks like a very contrived reason for the couple’s marital strife.

And speaking of things that look phony, the de-aging visual effects in “Here” are not entirely convincing, especially in scenes with Hanks, Wright and Bettany portraying characters who are supposed to be younger than 25. The faces don’t look natural. And neither do many of the body movements.

The best aspects of “Here” have to do with the movie’s production design, which looks meticulously accurate for each era that is depicted. There are some scenes where the background of the living room is clearly not real but is the creation of computer-generated imagery (CGI), making it obvious that “Here” blurs the lines between real production design and CGI design. The movie’s costume design is quite notable. However, production design and costume design are not enough to make a good movie.

“Here” undoubtedly has a very talented cast, but they are restricted by having characters with personalities that lack depth and have scenes that are cut too short and edited in an off-putting way. If “Here” had omitted everything that happened before the house was built and just focused on the two most interesting families who lived in the house, then “Here” might have been a meaningful film. As it stands, “Here” is a fairly ambitious experiment that is a failed experiment because of muddled storytelling that is in service of soulless visual effects.

TriStar Pictures released “Here” in U.S. cinemas on November 1, 2024.

Review: ‘Railway Children,’ starring Jenny Agutter, Sheridan Smith, John Bradley and Tom Courtenay

November 20, 2022

by Carla Hay

“Railway Children”

Directed by Morgan Matthews

Culture Representation: Taking place in 1944, mainly in West Yorkshire, England, the dramatic film “Railway Children” features a predominantly white cast of characters (and a few African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: During World War II, four British children befriend and help a young African American soldier, who has deserted the U.S. Army and has gone into hiding.

Culture Audience: “Railway Children” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching corny and sometimes unrealistic dramas that take place during World War II.

Pictured clockwise, from bottom left: Eden Hamilton, Austin Haynes, Sheridan Smith, Tom Courtenay, Jenny Agutter, Beau Gadsdon and Zac Cudby in “Railway Children” (Photo courtesy of Blue Fox Entertainment)

Even though the sappy drama “Railway Children” is told from the perspectives of children during World War II, it’s still no excuse for how the movie mishandles issues such as racism and military desertion. The movie’s last 15 minutes are atrociously mushy. Mostly, “Railway Children” is just lackluster and dull, until the last third of the film, where a plot development is crammed in to create a false sense of suspense. This plot development ends up falling very flat because of the way it’s unrealistically resolved.

Directed by Morgan Matthews, “Railway Children” takes place in 1944, mostly in West Yorkshire, England. Daniel Brocklehurst and Jemma Rodgers co-wrote the maudlin “Railway Children” screenplay. If people don’t know anything about the movie before seeing it, the movie’s title might give the impression it’s about vagabond kids who travel by railway. The movie’s actually not about that at all. It’s a sequel to the 1970 film “The Railway Children,” which is based on Edith Nesbit’s 1905 novel. “The Railway Children” was remade into a TV-movie released in 2000.

The children who are the central characters in “Railway Children” (formerly titled “The Railway Children Return”) actually aren’t homeless. Transportation by train is only a significant part of the movie’s plot in the beginning and near the end of the film. “Railway Children” is about three siblings whose mother has made them temporarily relocate from Manchester, England, to West Yorkshire, because a big city like Manchester is more likely to be bombed during the war. Their single mother, who is a nurse, has decided to live and work in Liverpool, England, until it’s safe for her to be reunited with her evacuated kids.

The opening scene of “Railway Children” shows the children’s mother, Angela Watts (played by Jessica Baglow), saying a tearful goodbye to her three kids at the train station in Manchester. She will not be going with them on the train. Eldest child Lily Watts (played by Beau Gadsdon) is about 14 or 15 years old. Middle child Pattie Watts (played by Eden Hamilton) is about 10 or 11 years old. Youngest child Ted Watts (played by Zac Cudby) is about 6 or 7 years old.

Angela tells Lily that because Lily is the eldest child, “You’re the parent now.” Pattie is wearing a dress, and she complains that she doesn’t like wearing dresses. After the children board the train, they meet some other unaccompanied children who have been sent away by their parents for the same reason as the Watts kids. The ticket taker on the train is aware that there are about 20 of these evacuated kids on the train.

During this trip, the kids are mostly obedient but get restless when they are told that the train won’t stop just anywhere for the passengers to use a restroom. The ticket taker gruffly tells Lily that everyone will have to wait until the train gets to the next train station, which has restrooms for people to use. Instead of waiting for that to happen, Lily secretly pulls the train’s emergency brake, forcing the train to stop.

The children then use this interruption to go in a field and relieve themselves. The train conductor suspects Lily pulled the emergency brake and accuses her privately, but she dares him to prove that she pulled the brake. Of course, he can’t prove it.

The main purpose of this scene is to establish early in the movie that Lily is a strong-willed, independent thinker who will break the rules if she thinks it’s for a good reason. Lily demonstrates this personality trait many times throughout the movie, especially when she makes a decision that could get her in trouble with the law. Lily also doesn’t abide by sexist gender roles where girls are expected to be weaker than boys.

When the evacuated kids on the train arrive at West Yorkshire, they are greeted by St. Mark’s School headmistress Annie Clark (played by Sheridan Smith) and Annie’s mother Roberta “Bobbie” Waterbury (played by Jenny Agutter), who live together and are both very welcoming to the kids. Agutter reprises her role as Bobbie, which she played in 1970’s “The Railway Children,” which was about three child siblings in 1905 who try to find out why their father disappeared. In the 2000 TV-movie version of “The Railway Children,” Agutter played the children’s mother.

In the “Railway Children” sequel, various families in the area have gathered at the school to meet the evacuated children and choose which ones they will take into their homes as foster kids. The Watts children don’t want to be separated, but that means no foster family wants to take all three of the Watts siblings together. Bobbie feels a great deal of sympathy for the Watts siblings, because they remind her of herself and her two siblings when she was a child, so she convinces a reluctant Annie to take the Watts siblings into their home.

Annie has an amiable and talkative son named Thomas Clark (played by Austin Haynes), who’s about 10 or 11 years old. Instead of being irritated that he has to share his living space with three kids he doesn’t know, Thomas adapts quickly and seems happy to have the company of kids close to his age. Thomas and the Watts siblings become fast friends and spend most of the movie hanging out together.

Thomas’ father is away, fighting in the war. Lily says that her father is doing the same thing. (As soon as she says that, it’s obvious she’s lying.) An occasional visitor to the household is Annie’s uncle Walter (played by Tom Courtenay), who lives in London and works as a political liaison for the Allies. Walter is a compassionate and wise person, but this character is very underdeveloped in the movie.

Another supporting character who is fairly one-dimensional is Richard (played by John Bradley), the manager of the local train station. Richard acts like a know-it-all and is somewhat impatient with kids. However, Richard likes Thomas enough to show Thomas the surveillance audio equipment that Richard keeps in the train station. Richard tells Thomas that he likes to eavesdrop on unsuspecting people to find out if anyone in town is a traitorous spy.

Unfortunately, the movie’s pace slows down considerably, as it lumbers along in showing how the Watts children have somewhat of a hard time adjusting to their new environment outside of their new household. At school, the Watts siblings are treated like outsiders by the classmates, except for Thomas. Four school bullies, led by a brat named Georgie Duckworth (played by Joseph Richards), try to attack Ted, Pattie and Thomas, but Lily sneaks up behind the bullies and is able to fight them off and scare them away.

“Railway Children” has repetitive scenes of Lily, Ted, Pattie and Thomas playing in an open field area that has some abandoned train cars. They uses these cars as “secret hideouts” when playing games with each other. Lily, Ted and Pattie are happy that they have a new friend in Thomas, but the Watts siblings miss their mother tremendously. Unfortunately, the movie depicts these emotions in a superficial way, as other issues get more importance in the story.

Life in the foster home is fairly tranquil, with occasional disruptions if the four kids are messy or don’t immediately do something that an adult tells them to do. One day, Annie gets a letter from the military with some upsetting news that she wants to keep a secret from the children. The information in the letter is eventually revealed, but the movie drags it out in a weak attempt to have some suspense.

About halfway through “Railway Children,” Lily, Pattie and Thomas make a very surprising discovery in their hideout area. A teenage American soldier named Abraham “Abe” McCarthy (played by Kenneth “KJ” Aikens) is hiding in one of the abandoned train cars. He has a gash injury on one of his legs. Abe tells the kids that he’s 18 years old and that he’s hiding because he’s on a secret mission for the U.S. Army.

Abe asks the children to bring him bandages and begs the kids not to tell anyone that he is there. Of course, all this secrecy means that Abe is probably lying. Eventually, the children find out the truth: Abe has gone absent without leave (AWOL) from the U.S. Army, which has sent the military police and other officials to look for Abe in West Yorkshire. Abe being a military deserter is not the only thing that Abe has lied about, and his other lie is very obvious to figure out.

Several U.S. Army soldiers are temporarily stationed in the area. The movie shows in heavy-handed ways that Abe has additional paranoia about being caught because he’s an African American and is expected to get harsher punishment than if he were white. More than one scene in the movie depicts white American soldiers harassing the African American soldiers, such as when a white American soldier berates and shoves an off-duty African American soldier for talking to a white British woman.

Abe wants to find a way to get on the next train out of town. Lily suggests that Abe get on the train going to Liverpool, where she says Abe can find her nurse mother to give him treatment. This naïve plan is taken very seriously in the movie, which doesn’t even show Lily giving Abe enough information to find her mother in a fairly big city like Liverpool. Meanwhile, Thomas gets very nervous about keeping Abe a secret, so Thomas starts to disagree with Lily about keeping this secret.

“Railway Children” is one of those movies where the kids have a secret plan to help someone and try to outsmart the adults in hatching this plan. Some viewers might find it quaint and charming how it’s all presented in the movie. However, it just comes across as cloying and pandering to people who want a formulaic and lazy movie that doesn’t take any risks and doesn’t try to deal with Abe’s issues in a realistic way.

For example, “Railway Children” makes it look like only the white Americans are racist, when the reality is that white supremacist racism can be anywhere, regardless of the nation. In the movie, Abe says he wants to leave the U.S. Army because of the racism he experiences in the Army. However, “Railway Children” doesn’t adequately address the reality that even if Abe made it back to the United States without getting punished by the U.S. Army, he would still be going back to a nation where racial segragation and other racist practices were legal. Abe talks a little bit about his family, but the British kids helping him don’t seem too interested in knowing what kind of life Abe would be going back home to in America.

All of those societal facts are shoved aside or buried because “Railway Children” wants to be an overly sweet movie about some kind-hearted kids who help a runaway teenager of a different race and nationality. There’s nothing wrong with children being depicted as naïve, but it’s wrong to depict the adults in this story acting like ignorant kids too, especially during a war that was mainly about freeing people from the hatefully bigoted tryanny of Nazi Germany. It doesn’t help that the acting performances in the movie are not very impressive, especially from Aikens, who delivers his lines of dialogue in an awkward and stiff manner.

“Railway Children” missed an opportunity to be a valuable lesson about World War II history and dealing with the harsh realities of war and bigotry. Instead, after a long, boring stretch where not much happens in the first two-thirds of the movie, the last third of “Railway Children” turns into a very clumsily staged runaway caper where everything is dumbed-down in service of being an absurdly sentimental story. Ultimately, “Railway Children” is one in a long list of movie sequels that are far inferior to the movies that spawned the sequels.

Blue Fox Entertainment released “Railway Children” in U.S. cinemas on September 23, 2022. The movie is set for release on digital and VOD on December 6, 2022. “Railway Children” was released in the United Kingdom on July 15, 2022.

Review: ‘Censor’ (2021), starring Niamh Algar

June 26, 2021

by Carla Hay

Niamh Algar in “Censor” (Photo by Maria Lax/Magnet Releasing)

“Censor” (2021)

Directed by Prano Bailey-Bond

Culture Representation: Taking place in early 1980s England, the horror film “Censor” features a predominantly white cast (with a few black people) representing the middle-class.

Culture Clash: A woman who works as a movie censor begins experiencing nightmarish visions related to a tragedy from her past.

Culture Audience: “Censor” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in horror films that put more emphasis on creating unsettling atmospheres than providing easy answers.

“Censor” is the type of horror movie that won’t satisfy people who are looking for a predictable ending, but it succeeds in immersing viewers into the psychological terror of a very disturbed mind. The movie has plenty of gory and bloody murder scenes, but what many viewers might find more frightening is being taken into a world where fact and fantasy are constantly blurred and play tricks on people’s sense of reality. Niamh Algar’s riveting performance in “Censor” elevates the movie’s tendency to be repetitive, which could have dragged down the story if not for Algar’s commendable acting.

Directed by Prano Bailey-Bond, “Censor” is her feature-film directorial debut, based on Bailey-Bond’s short film “Nasty.” Bailey-Bond and Anthony Fletcher co-wrote the screenplay for “Censor,” which takes place in early 1980s England, when the VHS video boom caused an increase in direct-to-video releases that could bypass the censors. Horror movies in particular benefited from the direct-to-video business model. And in England, these uncensored films became known as “video nasties.”

“Censor” takes place during a time when the British Board of Film Censors (which changed its name to the British Board of Film Classification in 1984) was adapting to the increasing distribution of videotapes sold directly to consumers as a new format for the movie industry. The BBFC, which is a non-governmental group founded by the film industry, works in a way that’s similar to the Motion Picture Association of America, by classifying or rating films, based on the minimum age that would be deemed appropriate to see those films.

In “Censor,” Algar portrays Enid Baines, a prim and proper spinster in her 30s who works for the BBFC. She takes her job very seriously and is a stickler for details. In an opening scene of the “Censor,” she has a conversation with her condescending co-worker Sanderson (played by Nicholas Burns) about a scene they watched in a horror movie that’s being evaluated for a rating classification.

Enid says to Sanderson, “The decapitation is ridiculous. It’s the eye gouging. It’s too realistic. Plus, I was trying to see who dragged her away.” Sanderson replies, “Does it matter? … I appreciate you analyzing this with clear precision, Enid. But someone perhaps got out of the cautious side of the bed this morning.”

Enid ignores Sanderson’s attempt to belittle her as uptight. Fortunately, not all of her co-workers are disrespectful. Enid also works closely with matronly Anne (played by Clare Perkins) and easygoing Perkins (played by Danny Lee Wynter), who both express concerns to Enid about her emotional well-being if it looks like she’s particularly disturbed by any of the violent content that she has to screen for her job. Enid experiences sexual harassment from a movie producer named Doug Smart (played by Michael Smiley) when he makes rude and sexist comments to her while he visiting in the office.

“Censor” doesn’t really show much of Enid’s home life, because viewers will get the impression that her life revolves around her work. However, there’s a tragedy from Enid’s past that has been haunting her. And a decision that her parents have made about this tragedy seems to set Enid off on a downward spiral of madness.

One day, Enid’s parents June Baines (played by Clare Holman) and George Baines (played by Andrew Havill) invite her to dinner at a restaurant to tell her some important news: They have decided to officially declare their missing daughter Lucy as dead. Lucy, who was Enid’s younger sister, disappeared in the forest of Chorleywood (a village in England), in 1958, when Lucy was 7 years old. Enid was about 12 or 13 at the time, and she was with Lucy on the day that Lucy disappeared. At the time, Lucy and Enid were living with their parents in Brimstead, Middlesex.

Enid has vague and fractured memories of Lucy’s disappearance. Because she could never fully remember what happened when Lucy disappeared, it has added to the tremendous guilt that Enid has felt ever since. Enid disagrees with her parents’ decision to declare that Lucy is dead, because Enid thinks there’s still a possibility that Lucy could still be alive. Enid also thinks that Lucy was kidnapped.

However, Lucy’s death certificate has already been made official. When Enid’s parents show Enid the death certificate, Enid has a hard time looking at it. Enid’s mother June tries to change the subject and asks Enid if she’s recently seen any good movies to recommend. Enid somberly explains to her mother what Enid’s job is: “It’s not entertainment, mum. I do it to protect people.”

The rising numbers of “video nasties” have created a backlash from certain people in the United Kingdom who want to blame these horror movies on an increase in crime. At the time, the U.K. (under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher) was experiencing an economic recession and high unemployment, which is often linked to an increase in crime, but people often want to scapegoat violent movies and TV as the reason. Enid is about to experience this backlash firsthand.

One day, Enid and Sanderson are called into the office of their boss Fraser (played by Victor Franklin), who nervously tells them about a phone call that he got that day from a journalist doing a story about a high-profile murder case. A man was recently arrested for murdering his wife, eating her face, and then shooting and killing their two children. This disturbing crime is eerily similar to a scene from a horror movie titled “Derangement,” and the journalist is linking these murders to the movie. And just like in “Derangement,” the murderer claims to have no memory of committing the crime. The media gave him the nickname the Amnesiac Killer.

Fraser is unnerved because somehow, the journalist knew that Enid and Sanderson were the two censors who evaluated “Derangement” before giving it a rating. Fraser demands a complete internal investigation and for Enid and Sanderson to give him a step-by-step analysis to explain why they decided to allow “Derangement” to be approved for release. Fraser also sternly lectures Enid and Sanderson that if they have any doubts about the content that they evaluate, they should not approve it and ask for edits or reject the movie altogether.

While all of this drama is going on in Enid’s job and personal life, she and Perkins watch a movie that’s up for evaluation. It’s an untitled film from a director called Frederick North. And what Enid sees in the movie seems to push her off the deep end into an abyss of emotional despair. What follows for the rest of “Censor” are flashbacks or hallucinations about what might or might not have happened when Enid and Lucy were in the woods all those years ago.

There’s a tall, menacing hulk—who has the name Beastman (played by Guillaume Delaunay) in the film credits—who is shown lurking in the woods and enticing a young Lucy into his remote house. (Beau Gadsdon plays a young Enid in these flashbacks.) There’s a horror movie called “Asunder” that Enid gets from a video store that offers more pieces to this mind-bending puzzle. An actress named Alice Lee (played by Sophia La Porta) is the star of “Asunder,” and Enid becomes obsessed with her because she fears that Alice is in danger.

One of the more effective aspects of “Censor” is how cinematographer Annika Summerson contrasts the dull and drab hues of Enid’s everyday life with the psychedelic nightmarish hues of Enid’s visions that take place in the forest. If it isn’t obvious to viewers during the movie, it’s made very clear at the end of the film that the forest is a metaphor for Enid’s mind. And getting trapped there is an experience that is not for the faint of heart.

Magnet Releasing released “Censor” in select U.S. cinemas on June 11, 2021, and on digital and VOD on June 18, 2021.