It's not your fault - it never was.

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's top 50 films of 2023

#22 :  Typist Artist Pirate King

Carol Morley’s warm and sympathetic film imagines artist Audrey Amiss, whose mental illness curtailed her ambitions, on a tragicomic road trip to exhibit her work.

Skipping over The Fabelmans which we've already met on Empire's list, we come to this - which I've never even heard of but I have to admit I'm intrigued by the title.

The film is centred around "typist artist pirate king" (as it says in her passport) Audrey Amiss (played by Monica Dolan) who has mental health issues and convinces her carer Sandra (Kelly Macdonald) to take her and a selection of her art (carefully stored in a bunch of plastic bags) to a local gallery which is offering to exhibit amateur artist's work. It's only after they get going from Audrey's London flat that Audrey admits the gallery is in Sunderland ("it's local to me!") but, for various reasons that become clear, Sandra agrees to take her. Road trip, baby!

And from there we follow them as they make the trip North - I think it's trying to be portray some kind of Arthurian quest whereby various challenges involving interesting "characters" are met and overcome (or simply run away from). It has moments of interest and clarity, but it also at times gets a bit tiresome in its randomness and kookiness. However, I do have to admit I was intrigued as how it was going to end - there are some aspects that make some kind of sense, but I'd be lying if I said it was all tied up nicely.

Monica Dolan is good in this - she gives a very believable performance, being often unlikeable but also eliciting sympathy. Kelly Macdonald has more of an "everywoman" role than you might expect from someone who's had some quite meaty roles in her time - she's ace in Line Of Duty, Boardwalk Empire and Gosford Park (but she's still probably best known for Trainspotting amongst those of us of us a certain age). Gina McKee also pops up in a short but pivotal role and is obviously as classy as ever.

I didn't love this film, but I did find it interesting - I didn't know anything about Audrey, but I enjoyed learning a bit about her through this (mostly fantastical) tale and then using Wikipedia to learn actual facts. It was also nice to watch a properly British film because this is only the third one on the list (and I think we've only got one more left) - if you fancy it, it's on Netflix (and it's a very un-Netflix-y kind of film).

#24 - A very enjoyable film