The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema & Tv
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
      • Shows
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

Berlin Film Festival 2018

Damsel

Berlin Film Festival 2018: Damsel | Review
16 February 2018
Sean Gallen
Avatar
Sean Gallen
16 February 2018

Movie and show review

Sean Gallen

Damsel

★★★★★

Special event

Berlin Film Festival 2018

15th to 25th February 2018

John Wayne is the epitome of the cowboy hero in the Western genre. Steel-eyed, laconic, single-handedly bringing justice to a lawless frontier. The films of Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah complicated and corrupted this heroism with crooked characters who invented their own morality and rules. Ever since, the genre has been incapable of coming back to those simple, black and white times.

Damsel confidently claims an important place in the history of the Western by creating a new ideal of heroism. The story follows idealistic businessman Samuel Alabaster (Robert Pattinson), who is determined to rescue his kidnapped fiancée, Penelope (Mia Wasikowska). He sets off into the heart of wilderness with his adorable miniature horse, Butterscotch, and employs the help of the alcoholic pastor, Parson Henry (David Zellner). Everything gets turned upside down when it’s revealed that Penelope was never held hostage but rather settled down with another man, much to the bewilderment of Samuel.

First and foremost, this deadpan comedy does not content itself with the usual sepia visuals we have grown accustomed to in contemporary Westerns. Damsel is a gorgeous, technicolour homage to the epic, panoramic cinematography of John Huston and Sergio Leone. The audience is treated to stunning desert vistas and verdant mountain landscapes delivered with a rich colour palette.

In the first half of the film, Samuel fills the pastor’s head with notions of true love and persuades him into helping in reuniting him with his star-crossed lover. When the truth is revealed, Penelope rejects the fantasy Samuel has projected on her and decides to break off on her own, taking the pastor as her own hostage. As she makes her way back to civilisation, she encounters more men who want to objectify her, define her and own her but she remains independent and resilient.

This brilliant subversion of gender roles pushes Damsel into a new branch of the genre as a woke Western. Both leads pour everything into incredible performances, Pattinson playing the deluded romantic and Wasikowska the whip-smart heroine. The Zellner brothers combined alternate between slapstick comedy and poignant drama to send the genre into a new, more modern sunset.

★★★★★

Sean Gallen

Damsel does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews and interviews from our Berlin Film Festival 2018 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Berlin Film Festival 2018.

Watch a clip from Damsel here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6t07LFf5hQ

Related Itemsberlin film festivalberlinalereview

More in Berlinale

A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces: An interview with filmmaker Shengze Zhu

Selina Sondermann
Read More

The Girl and the Spider: An interview with Ramon & Silvan Zürcher

Samuel Nicholls
Read More

Taste (Vị)

★★★★★
Oliver Johnston
Read More

Jesus Egon Christ (Jesus Egon Christus)

★★★★★
Catherine Sedgwick
Read More

Jesus Egon Christ: An interview with directors David and Saša Vajda

Ezelle Alblas
Read More

“There really hasn’t been a film that deals with a platonic male-female relationship in this way”: Natalie Morales and Mark Duplass discuss Language Lessons

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Berlinale 2021 winners: The full list

Naomi Schanen
Read More

Summer Blur (Han Nan Xia Ri)

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

Beans

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Sean Gallen

Damsel

★★★★★

Special event

Berlin Film Festival 2018

15th to 25th February 2018

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Shake Shack launches limited edition Vegan Crispy Shallot Burger in partnership with chef Neil Rankin
    Food & Drinks
  • Celebrate the EE BAFTAs this Sunday with Claude Bosi’s free virtual dining experience
    Food & Drinks
  • Ben Howard: Global Transmission from Goonhilly Earth Station live stream
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Final Days
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Barker-Turner Overdrive: An Evening of Duets at the Tunbridge Wells Forum Online
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The best takeaway pizzas in London
    Food & Drinks
  • My Love: Six Stories of True love
    ★★★★★
    netflix
  • The Year Earth Changed
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Doppler: Grid Iron theatre company document the story so far
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Disenchanted Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The best takeaway pizzas in London
    Food & Drinks
  • The Year Earth Changed
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Playfight at Finborough Theatre Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The Power
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Godzilla vs Kong: A colossal brawl that magnificently delivers what we tuned in to see
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Berlin Film Festival 2018: Styx | Review
Styx press conference with Wolfgang Fischer, Susanne Wolff, Gedion Oduor Wekesa and Benedict Neuenfels