Review of Misbehaviour

Slightly disappointing feminist film about the womens-movement disruption of the 1970 Miss World competition in London. I'm too young to judge the historical accuracy, though I am perplexed that the theatre where it's taking place seems to be on Waterloo Place - was there ever a theatre there?

The film is a bit worthy. It's easy to laugh at the sleazy 1970s style sexism of Eric Morley, just as it's easy to be superior to 1960s redneck racists in the Southern USA, without having to address the mechanisms of either racism or sexism as they operate today.

It's also a bit dull, without much dramatic tension. It's possible to have drama even when you know how something is going to turn out, but this doesn't manage it. The poster suggests that this is going to be fun, a bit like Made in Dagenham, but it isn't that enjoyable.

There is an odd countervailing narrative in the personal stories of two Black women contestants - Miss Grenada and Miss African South, the latter introduced at the last minute alongside a white Miss South Africa in an attempt to head off anti-apartheid protests. Both of these make some suggestion that by winning they'd be striking a blow for the self-esteem of Black women and girls. Though the central character, Sally Alexander (played by Keira Knightley) challenges this, the camera-work and the sequencing of shots suggests that they may have a point.

I note in passing:

• Tutorials at UCL in 1970 had only three students present - today's students don't get that, do they?
• Protestors in 1970 could take water-pistols that looked like real guns to protests and use them to squirt policement - today you'd get shot dead doing that.

Watched via informal distribution and laptop connected to the TV via VGA cable.