Jane Austen Done Right

by Cláudio Alves

Recently, Nathaniel reviewed Netflix's Persuasion adaptation, pointing out many of the film's issues. That said, our beloved editor is not an Austenite, so his critique lacks the militant outrage you could expect from the writer's biggest fans. Speaking as one of those demented individuals, I found the latest adaptation to be terrible beyond belief, starting from its basic premise. After all, why would one choose Austen's most melancholic, wistful, and mature novel for this Fleabag-esque treatment full of anachronistic jokes and fourth-wall-breaking jests? Isn't something like Northanger Abbey better suited for such an interpretation? The whole thing is a panoply of bad choices.

Still, while the new movie is terrible, the impulse to modernize Jane Austen's writing isn't necessarily wrong-headed. One just has to understand each text's particularities. The author's work is eminently cinematic and quite malleable when handled well. To prove its endless plasticity, here's a list of Austen-related films that took wildly disparate approaches to the material… 

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Review: Blinded By The Light

by Chris Feil

Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha brings us another earnest and heartwarming delight with Blinded By The Light, a true story of a Pakistani teenager transported out of his British suburb by the music of Bruce Springsteen. Javed (played by charming newcomer Viveik Kalra) is an outsider inside and outside his home: he can’t abide his father’s rigid cultural expectations and struggles to be taken seriously as writer in a white-dominated community. But the film also speaks to the political and economic concerns of its time period, depicting a lower-middle class world oppressed by Thatcher and the ensuing racist resurgence and capitalistic dominance.

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