Who is popular today?

Sam Riley and Haley Bennett are acrimonious exes staying at the same remote hotel in Jamie Adams’ directionless film that sees great talent go to wasteProlific British film-maker Jamie Adams got me hooked with his 2015 comedy Black Mountain Poets, a laid-back improv-realist caper with Alice Lowe and Dolly Wells – but then he sort of got me unhooked with his Wild Honey Pie! a few years later, a pretty indulgent and directionless film. And now I have to say I am defeated and disappointed by his latest flimsy creation, another let’s-make-up-the-film-right-here exercise which looks as if it was shot under lockdown/bubble conditions, arbitrarily, and frankly uninterestingly, marooned in a single location: a Cornish boutique hotel.The air of sheepish pointlessness becomes pretty wearing after a while, despite the undoubted quality of his lead actors. As so often, Adams assembles a classy transatlantic cast: Sam Riley plays Idris, a former pop star whose career has stalled; he is now living with a younger partner, Louise (Marisa Abela) who appears to own or manage the hotel where they both live, but – rather bafflingly – Louise’s real vocation appears to be acting. She is fanatically running her lines for a tricky upcoming audition callback. So what’s with the hotel? Was she left it in someone’s will? Continue reading...