{"id":22483,"date":"2024-03-19T23:17:33","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T03:17:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=22483"},"modified":"2024-03-19T23:17:33","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T03:17:33","slug":"sxsw-review-a-picture-of-a-maddening-marriage-in-magpie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=22483","title":{"rendered":"SXSW Review – A Picture of a Maddening Marriage in \u2018Magpie\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

People stay in bad marriages for a variety of reasons. Chief among them is children, but there can also be hope that things will return to the honeymoon period that started the romance and has now become a distant memory. <\/span>Magpie<\/i><\/b> introduces its protagonist when there\u2019s nothing resembling love left in her marriage, and the gap between how she perceives the relationship and how her truly detestable husband does couldn\u2019t be any wider. What ensues is an intriguing and intensifying rollercoaster of bad decisions and the frustrating and mind-boggling inaction of the long-suffering wife watching it all happen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anette (Daisy Ridley) has an important meeting coming up, and her husband Ben (Shazad Latif) barely even looks at her when she asks for his advice on what to wear. Worse still, the next morning, he\u2019s ready to take their daughter Tilly (Hiba Ahmed) to set for her first day of shooting and he never bothered to tell Anette that he canceled the babysitter for their younger child, meaning that she has to bring the baby with her to see a colleague who couldn\u2019t possibly see her as ready to come back to work. As Anette sits at home each day taking care of the baby, Ben falls hard for Alicia (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz), the actress playing Tilly\u2019s mom.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s remarkable to see just how terrible a husband Ben is, and sadly it\u2019s likely not a completely invented character since many men surely do believe themselves to be superior to their wives for no good reason. When Anette is helping Tilly get ready, Ben can\u2019t be bothered to check on the baby because he\u2019s looking for his phone, and he complains to Alicia about Anette as if she hates him, referring to her only as \u201cTilly\u2019s mom.\u201d He recognizes that his being away from the family for several months to do research for his next book wasn\u2019t a positive choice, but doesn\u2019t actually take any of the blame for his entirely selfish acts that essentially give Anette all the hard and boring jobs while allowing him to do nothing but accompany his daughter to a movie set each day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Audiences will commend Anette for not having murdered her husband even just a few minutes into this film, and Ridley delivers a very reserved performance best perceived through the piercing looks she gives Ben and herself in the mirror. The script is full of witty lines that she gets to deliver that Ben barely even notices as the crude takedowns they are, like when Anette describes a tabloid article with a photo of Ben and Alicia as rude because he\u2019s referred to as a mystery man and they should have been able to recognize a \u201cfamous author.\u201d It\u2019s nowhere near what he deserves, but there\u2019s some twisted joy to be found in taking him down even a slight peg.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ridley, whose husband Tom Bateman wrote those biting barbs and the rest of the screenplay, will surely attract fans of hers from her <\/span>Star Wars<\/i><\/b> fame who will find an entirely different kind of film waiting for them. Latif, capable of being a perfectly charming and romantic lead in the recent release <\/span>What\u2019s Love Got to Do with It?<\/i><\/b>, does an extraordinary job of creating someone so actively absent from his marriage, not going over the top but bringing Ben as close as possible to the brink of believable arrogance. Lutz enhances the affair storyline as a celebrity seeking validation who is poisoned from the start by the demeaning and dishonest way Ben represents his marital status.<\/span><\/p>\n

While it does take some time for the balance of power in this film to shift, it does happen, and it\u2019s best for anyone who hasn\u2019t seen the film to go in knowing nothing else. While its events do occur quickly enough, this is the definition of a slow burn where staying until the end provides a fabulous payoff. <\/span>Magpie <\/i><\/b>builds towards a fantastic finish, and, best of all, knows exactly when to cut to black, wrapping its story at the just the right point to provide a superb and satisfying high following ninety minutes of captivating uncertainty.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Grade: B+<\/b><\/p>\n

Check out more of Abe Friedtanzer\u2019s articles<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Magpie <\/i><\/b>makes its world premiere in the <\/span>Narrative Spotlight section<\/span><\/a> at the 2024 SXSW Film and TV Festival.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People stay in bad marriages for a variety of reasons. Chief among them is children, but there can also be hope that things will return to the honeymoon period that started the romance and has now become a distant memory. Magpie introduces its protagonist when there\u2019s nothing resembling love left in her marriage, and the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":22484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[13757,21112,21110,16212,21111,15521,134,20943,6034],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSXSW Review - A Picture of a Maddening Marriage in \u2018Magpie\u2019<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Daisy Ridley stars a mother married to a truly detestable husband in Tom Yates' thriller Magpie, premiering at SXSW.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=22483\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SXSW Review - A Picture of a Maddening Marriage in \u2018Magpie\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Daisy Ridley stars a mother married to a truly detestable husband in Tom Yates' thriller Magpie, premiering at SXSW.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=22483\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cinema Daily US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-03-20T03:17:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Magpie.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1227\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"690\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Abe Friedtanzer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/movieswithabe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Abe Friedtanzer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=22483\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=22483\",\"name\":\"SXSW Review - A Picture of a Maddening Marriage in \u2018Magpie\u2019\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=22483#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=22483#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Magpie.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-20T03:17:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-20T03:17:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6d4d1be5055fa0a21c6be5ee2b54ae10\"},\"description\":\"Daisy Ridley stars a mother married to a truly detestable husband in Tom Yates' thriller Magpie, premiering at SXSW.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=22483#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=22483\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=22483#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Magpie.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Magpie.jpg\",\"width\":1227,\"height\":690,\"caption\":\"Daisy Ridley as Anette in Magpie, directed by Sam Yates. | Credit: Rob Baker Ashton\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=22483#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"SXSW Review – A Picture of a Maddening Marriage in \u2018Magpie\u2019\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/\",\"name\":\"Cinema Daily US\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6d4d1be5055fa0a21c6be5ee2b54ae10\",\"name\":\"Abe Friedtanzer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Abe-Friedtanzer-150x150.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Abe-Friedtanzer-150x150.png\",\"caption\":\"Abe Friedtanzer\"},\"description\":\"Abe Friedtanzer is a film and TV enthusiast who spent most of the past fifteen years in New York City. He has been the editor of MoviesWithAbe.com and TVwithAbe.com since 2007, and has been predicting the Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes, and SAG Awards since he was allowed to stay up late enough to watch them. He has attended numerous film festivals including Sundance, Tribeca, and SXSW, and is a contributing writer for The Film Experience, Awards Radar, and AwardsWatch.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.cinemadailyus.com\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/movieswithabe\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/movieswithabe\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?author=5\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"SXSW Review - A Picture of a Maddening Marriage in \u2018Magpie\u2019","description":"Daisy Ridley stars a mother married to a truly detestable husband in Tom Yates' thriller Magpie, premiering at SXSW.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=22483","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"SXSW Review - A Picture of a Maddening Marriage in \u2018Magpie\u2019","og_description":"Daisy Ridley stars a mother married to a truly detestable husband in Tom Yates' thriller Magpie, premiering at SXSW.","og_url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=22483","og_site_name":"Cinema Daily US","article_published_time":"2024-03-20T03:17:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1227,"height":690,"url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Magpie.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Abe Friedtanzer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/movieswithabe","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Abe Friedtanzer","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=22483","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=22483","name":"SXSW Review - A Picture of a Maddening Marriage in \u2018Magpie\u2019","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=22483#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=22483#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Magpie.jpg","datePublished":"2024-03-20T03:17:33+00:00","dateModified":"2024-03-20T03:17:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6d4d1be5055fa0a21c6be5ee2b54ae10"},"description":"Daisy Ridley stars a mother married to a truly detestable husband in Tom Yates' thriller Magpie, premiering at SXSW.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=22483#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=22483"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=22483#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Magpie.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Magpie.jpg","width":1227,"height":690,"caption":"Daisy Ridley as Anette in Magpie, directed by Sam Yates. | Credit: Rob Baker Ashton"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=22483#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"SXSW Review – A Picture of a Maddening Marriage in \u2018Magpie\u2019"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/","name":"Cinema Daily US","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6d4d1be5055fa0a21c6be5ee2b54ae10","name":"Abe Friedtanzer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Abe-Friedtanzer-150x150.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Abe-Friedtanzer-150x150.png","caption":"Abe Friedtanzer"},"description":"Abe Friedtanzer is a film and TV enthusiast who spent most of the past fifteen years in New York City. He has been the editor of MoviesWithAbe.com and TVwithAbe.com since 2007, and has been predicting the Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes, and SAG Awards since he was allowed to stay up late enough to watch them. He has attended numerous film festivals including Sundance, Tribeca, and SXSW, and is a contributing writer for The Film Experience, Awards Radar, and AwardsWatch.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.cinemadailyus.com","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/movieswithabe\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/movieswithabe"],"url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?author=5"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22483"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}