Natey Jones, Alexandra Burke, Temilola Olatunbosun
British filmmaker and screenwriter Dionne Edwards’ (We Love Moses) intensely likeable, big-hearted feature debut spins an exhilarating story out of the unexpected effect of a pretty red dress.
South London: Singer Candice (X-Factor singer Alexandra Burke) is hoping to land the role of a lifetime in a big musical. But in her personal life, she’s got problems: her grumpy teenage daughter Kenisha (Temilola Olatunbosun) is in trouble at school, and her partner Travis (theatre actor Natey Jones) is only just out of prison and still stuck at home with an ankle tag. Hoping to please Candice, Travis buys her a dress for her next audition. But rather than smooth things over, the dress creates more problems, as it inexorably leads Travis to explore his most secret, truest self and rethink how he really wants to move through the world.
Skilfully directed and featuring raw, honest performances from Jones, Burke and newcomer Olatunbosun, Edwards’ film is an intimate, complex and insightful study of Black masculinity and family relationships, a daring part-musical combining fantasy and reality and energetically sound-tracked by glorious Tina Turner hits.