'100 Nights of Hero' Review: Charli XCX Hasn't Found the Right Movie Yet

“Are you ready? Then we will begin.”

This narrative, over an image of three moons suspended in the sky, begins Julia Jackman's “100 Nights of Hero,” which she adapted and directed Isabel Greenberg's 2016 graphic novel. It means we're in for a heightened level of self-reflexive fantasy storytelling, and in fact, the revolutionary power of storytelling itself is the beating heart of this film.

Jackman takes his own stylistic approach in “100 Nights of Hero” without replicating Greenberg's aesthetic. Almost immediately you can tell that this fantastical film has a feminine touch in its colorful and highly stylized look and sound; There is a certain youthful wit in the vibrant pink tones and the centering of the women's narratives within the mannered compositions. The setting is an isolated, cult-like community that worships its god, Birdman (Richard E. Grant, in a cameo), and models its patriarchal society around the usual principles: control women, produce heirs.

Young bride Cherry (Maika Monroe) is married to Jerome (Amir El-Masry) and although he claims they are trying to have a baby, that is not the case. Too bad she's the one who will suffer the consequences of not getting pregnant. Soon, the handsome Manfred (Nicholas Galitzine) appears and the two men engage in a cruel bet: Manfred spends 100 nights alone in the castle to seduce Cherry while Jerome is away on business. If he fails, he will have to find a baby for Jerome, who is not interested in sex with women. If Manfred is successful, he will keep the castle. But if Cherry strays, she's left hanging. (It's a situation where the wife loses, as expected.)

Cherry has one person on her side, Hero (Emma Corrin), her cunning maid, who distracts Manfred from his goal by telling him the story of three sisters who engage in the “sinful, evil, and absolutely forbidden” (for women) pleasure of reading and writing. One of the sisters, Rosa (Charli XCX), is married to a merchant who soon discovers her “witchcraft.”

Each night, Hero adds a new chapter of the three sisters, their story intertwining with that of Cherry and Manfred, as we discover that Hero is part of the League of Secret Storytellers: women who collect tales and weave them into tapestries, their work hiding their true intention as the stories spread from ear to ear.

The issues here are basic and elemental: the trials and tribulations of sex, marriage, fidelity, and procreation. Although brides are trapped in castles and men in bird masks want to burn witches, this story is not so out of our time or place. The pressure to “produce an heir” is still alive in current pronatalist arguments and “commercial wives” discourse, and control of women's bodies (and minds) is necessary to meet the goal of producing more and more babies. This tale doesn't seem so old or so fantastical at all.

However, there is little nuance to the narrative of “100 Nights of Hero” itself. It's a bit like feminism for tweens, a young adult approach to explaining how the liberation of minds is necessary for the liberation of bodies. The film is blunt and obvious to its detriment. Its quirky, opulent aesthetic can only sustain the exercise for so long.

As our interest wanes over the course of this 90-minute modernist fable, Manfred begins to fade, a natural occurrence in a folktale that seeks to deprioritize men. Unfortunately, Galitzine's presence on screen is too powerful to ignore and we notice her absence. Perhaps it's because Manfred is so arrogantly confident, Galitzine's embodiment of fluid sensuality contrasts starkly with Monroe's stiff, anxious, breathy performance as Cherry.

The most powerful image in the film, which is made up of interesting images, is that of Galitzine covered in blood as he drags a freshly slaughtered deer home for lunch. If the movie is about women discovering their own pleasure and sensuality outside of men, they shouldn't have made Manfred the most attractive and earthy character on screen.

While “100 Nights of Hero” has compelling actors and beautiful visuals, its narrative (about the power of storytelling) is unfortunately not as engrossing. The urgency of the message is clear but the delivery leaves much to be desired.