Red, White & Royal Blue (2023)
July 6, 2023 11:57 AM - Subscribe
An LGBT romance based on the novel by Casey McQuiston, the story revolves around the character of Alex Claremont-Diaz, son of The President of the United States, and his romantic relationship with Prince Henry, a British prince.
Haha could not put that book DOWN when I read it. What a charming confection of a romance novel, and the trailer at least looks similarly diverting. Thanks for posting, I had no idea this was in the works.
posted by potrzebie at 10:50 PM on July 6, 2023
posted by potrzebie at 10:50 PM on July 6, 2023
I'm excited to see this - and won't even watch the trailer to avoid spoiling myself on anything. I enjoyed the book so much.
posted by joannemerriam at 10:12 AM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by joannemerriam at 10:12 AM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
That looks cute!
I wonder if the movie is going to seem a little on-the-nose about the Harry and Megan situation because of all the stuff that has ensued since the book was published. I think the plot of the book was clearly inspired in some way by Harry and Megan, but it was a pretty loose inspiration, and nobody had any way of knowing for sure that the Palace disapproved of their relationship and the rest of the family were stuck-up bigots and whatnot. Now, the stuff with Henry's family is going to seem more ripped-from-the-headlines, I think. Whereas some of the post-2016 American political wish fulfillment stuff has probably faded a little bit, just because at this point it's harder to imagine an alternative reality where something different happened in the 2016 election.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:03 PM on July 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
I wonder if the movie is going to seem a little on-the-nose about the Harry and Megan situation because of all the stuff that has ensued since the book was published. I think the plot of the book was clearly inspired in some way by Harry and Megan, but it was a pretty loose inspiration, and nobody had any way of knowing for sure that the Palace disapproved of their relationship and the rest of the family were stuck-up bigots and whatnot. Now, the stuff with Henry's family is going to seem more ripped-from-the-headlines, I think. Whereas some of the post-2016 American political wish fulfillment stuff has probably faded a little bit, just because at this point it's harder to imagine an alternative reality where something different happened in the 2016 election.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:03 PM on July 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
The movie is releasing early - it comes out tonight, Thurs 8/10, at 8pm ET!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:40 AM on August 10, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:40 AM on August 10, 2023 [1 favorite]
So cute. I think the cuts made to keep the movie trim made sense for the most part - it was even sort of cute that Alex's parents are married in this one. And the two leads have AMAZING chemistry.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:04 PM on August 10, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:04 PM on August 10, 2023 [1 favorite]
Adorable! An absolute romcom fantasy, and I hadn't expected the casting of the King. It ran pretty well for the understandable cuts to the story, as any actual contemplation of the story makes it fall apart immediately, but the two leads are very charming.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 7:43 AM on August 11, 2023
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 7:43 AM on August 11, 2023
I am probably in the minority here because I liked the book but didn't love love it...so I wasn't sure if I'd get into this, but I found it very charming! I agree that the leads have off-the-charts chemistry, and I did not miss the additional political stuff which I vaguely remember from the book.
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:47 AM on August 12, 2023
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:47 AM on August 12, 2023
The first 20 minutes or so were rough to me. That opening scene at the wedding is so off the charts unrealistic in too many ways, I didn't think I was gonna like the movie. But the "that would never happen" flaws got smaller, and by the time the fellas finally get together I was won over and enjoyed it. It's also another of those "wow, imagine if this had been around when I was younger!" things - so I'm happy it's around for today's younger folks.
posted by dnash at 12:04 PM on August 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by dnash at 12:04 PM on August 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
I haven't read the book, but this movie was adorable. I happened to notice the actors' names popping up at the beginning, and so guessed who was playing the King. All the Texas politics stuff was also fantasy. (This is not a complaint.) The county-by-county map at the end looked broadly plausible - lots of red, but with Houston/Harris County outstanding.
posted by mersen at 12:24 PM on August 13, 2023
posted by mersen at 12:24 PM on August 13, 2023
The US electoral map at the end was not super plausible - who wins Georgia but loses Minnesota and Michigan? Fun fantasy, though.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 6:28 AM on August 14, 2023
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 6:28 AM on August 14, 2023
What a great movie! My partner and I both read the book and loved it, it's been our gateway to gay romance novels. This was everything we wanted in a movie and more. They really succeeded the adaption. Also the main actors were compelling and sexy and each in their own way. The romance between the two sparkled.
The action sure goes fast! My memory is the book takes awhile to get rolling; in the movie that first kiss in the garden happens just 30 minutes in. I'd forgotten just how many plot events there are in the book, so many that it's a bit hard to fit them all in a 2 hour movie and let it breathe. But it worked.
Mostly it was refreshing to watch a gay romance story executed so well. And without fuss. The film felt super gay to me, not pulling any punches, even a sex scene that left no ambiguity of who was doing what while still staying within R rating guidelines.
The NYTimes had a good article about the making of the movie.
posted by Nelson at 6:59 AM on August 14, 2023
The action sure goes fast! My memory is the book takes awhile to get rolling; in the movie that first kiss in the garden happens just 30 minutes in. I'd forgotten just how many plot events there are in the book, so many that it's a bit hard to fit them all in a 2 hour movie and let it breathe. But it worked.
Mostly it was refreshing to watch a gay romance story executed so well. And without fuss. The film felt super gay to me, not pulling any punches, even a sex scene that left no ambiguity of who was doing what while still staying within R rating guidelines.
The NYTimes had a good article about the making of the movie.
posted by Nelson at 6:59 AM on August 14, 2023
Some incredibly nitpicky details because I was researching these and didn't want to lose the info.
The movie was shot in England. They really did shoot at the Victoria & Albert Museum and it was complicated. The wacky thing is they had to do a shot at night and they weren't allowed to bring any of their own lighting. The result works very well and looks quite unusual in a movie.
At about 1h29m we see a shot of a private airplane as Alex flies back from his last minute trip to reunite with Harry after Harry's freakout. The shot includes a quick image of a small private airplane with the registration RA0639. That's a weird registration; RA is the code for the Commonwealth of Independent States, a group of Russian-allied nations that formed in the early 90s out of the remnants of the USSR. Turns out the plane belongs to Shoot Aviation, a small business that provides aircraft for film and TV shoots. Probably the plane had that livery for some other movie where it made sense and no one bothered to repaint it for the brief appearance here.
Looking back through the film for the airplane made me aware of how many shots there are of one or the other of them flying back and forth. It's a sort of punctuation mark in the film, a brief travel scene to transition from one act to the next. It works pretty well! Who among us hasn't hopped a last minute private plane to fly to an English palace because our boyfriend isn't answering his phone?
posted by Nelson at 7:56 AM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
The movie was shot in England. They really did shoot at the Victoria & Albert Museum and it was complicated. The wacky thing is they had to do a shot at night and they weren't allowed to bring any of their own lighting. The result works very well and looks quite unusual in a movie.
At about 1h29m we see a shot of a private airplane as Alex flies back from his last minute trip to reunite with Harry after Harry's freakout. The shot includes a quick image of a small private airplane with the registration RA0639. That's a weird registration; RA is the code for the Commonwealth of Independent States, a group of Russian-allied nations that formed in the early 90s out of the remnants of the USSR. Turns out the plane belongs to Shoot Aviation, a small business that provides aircraft for film and TV shoots. Probably the plane had that livery for some other movie where it made sense and no one bothered to repaint it for the brief appearance here.
Looking back through the film for the airplane made me aware of how many shots there are of one or the other of them flying back and forth. It's a sort of punctuation mark in the film, a brief travel scene to transition from one act to the next. It works pretty well! Who among us hasn't hopped a last minute private plane to fly to an English palace because our boyfriend isn't answering his phone?
posted by Nelson at 7:56 AM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
Just an acquaintance muse, "Still wondering why Uma Thurman wandered in from a Tennessee Williams play" which definitely captures my thoughts on her accent.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:54 AM on August 18, 2023
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:54 AM on August 18, 2023
Maybe it's the fact of the ongoing rise of fascism around the world, the summer that climate change finally came for us all, the unrelenting inescapableness of capitalism, or Dune: Part Two possibly being delayed, but this is the finest new release I've seen this year. Cinema, that great revolutionary art form of the 20th Century, is dead? Not yet it's not!
A better world is possible. One where the round pegs tell the square holes to go fuck themselves.
posted by rhymedirective at 4:37 PM on August 19, 2023
A better world is possible. One where the round pegs tell the square holes to go fuck themselves.
posted by rhymedirective at 4:37 PM on August 19, 2023
This was cute af! It got recommended on my Ask for fluffy holiday movies and easily qualifies as one that doesn't meet my criteria because it's way too good to play in the background while I do chores. I SCREAMED when the king showed up, hahaha, what a cameo!
posted by MiraK at 1:32 PM on November 30, 2023
posted by MiraK at 1:32 PM on November 30, 2023
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posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 12:08 PM on July 6, 2023 [1 favorite]