"Clifford plays haughty but troubled aristocrat Lady Isabella who welcomes a young film-maker into her gorgeous country estate (filmed at Somerleyton Hall in Suffolk) with calamitous results, and the film plays like a scuzzier, shroomier B-side to Saltburn. Maybe it's a bit reliant on Clifford's overwhelming firepower of performance, and we have to indulge the way it cheats strict mockumentary rules about how exactly the camera comes to be where it is at every moment."
"But there are laughs and unexpected tenderness in this very peculiar sentimental education. Laurie Kynaston plays Sam, a pushy, insecure young director who shows up at the stately home with his crew, excited at the prospect of shooting a candid documentary study, but disconcerted by the distrait behaviour and patrician mannerisms of the chatelaine, Lady Isabella. Describing herself as aristocracy's answer to the Kardashians, she hosts and judges the annual talent show Stately Stars for local children."
Sian Clifford portrays Lady Isabella, a haughty but troubled aristocrat who invites a young filmmaker and his crew to her sumptuous country estate, producing calamitous, comic and tender moments. The film functions as a bizarre mockumentary debut that leans on Clifford's intense presence while playfully bending documentary rules. Laurie Kynaston plays Sam, an ambitious director who sees a sensational story and exploits Isabella's eccentricities; Juliet Cowan appears as an unsure housekeeper. Lady Isabella stages an elaborate multimedia performance-installation combining poetry, action painting and provocative imagery, creating a blend of dark humor, manipulation and unexpected warmth.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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