Its star is up for Best Actress at the Academy Awards this weekend.
With this year’s Oscars ceremony just around the corner, now is the time when movie fans may be curious to check out some of the titles up for prizes that they may have missed.
Thankfully, one much-discussed nominee at this year’s awards is now available to watch at home for those who didn’t get to see it in the cinema.
That film is Spencer, a drama with some major talent involved both onscreen and behind the scenes.
Written by Peaky Blinders’ creator Steven Knight and directed by Pablo Larraín (Jackie), the drama sees Kristen Stewart play Princess Diana.
However, this is not your traditional biopic, with Spencer describing itself in its opening credits as “a fable from a true tragedy”.
More interested in imagining what it might have felt like to be in Diana’s shoes than being 100% historically accurate, the movie takes place over three days during the 1991 Christmas season as she decides to end her marriage to Prince Charles (played by Jack Farthing).
Deservedly nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars, Stewart is incredible playing Diana as someone desperately trying to keep a perfect composure for the press and royals but growing increasingly unable to cope with the stifling environment – raging against it at various points throughout the film.
Between her dark portrayal, the gloomy score by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, the intoxicatingly moody cinematography and the movie’s handful of haunting dream sequences, Spencer for most of its running time feels less like a biopic and more like a psychological thriller – helping it stand out from projects telling a similar story like The Crown.
Currently sitting on a 83% score on Rotten Tomatoes, Spencer is streaming on Amazon Prime Video in Ireland now.
You can check out its trailer below.
Clip via Neon
You can also watch JOE’s interview with Stewart about Spencer here:
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