Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Wendy Ide

Dear Elizabeth review – fist-chewingly creepy comedy

Tony Hale in Dear Elizabeth.
‘Skin-crawling’: Tony Hale in Dear Elizabeth. Photograph: Film PR handout

Hearts audibly sink when Sid Straw (Tony Hale) cranks up his chummy banter. His colleagues can barely bring themselves to make eye contact when he attempts to engage; his sister-in-law has all but banned him from family events. So when Sid claims to have been college friends with The Hunger Games star Elizabeth Banks, there’s a degree of cynicism, which is not helped by the fact that social media neophyte Sid inadvertently and very publicly starts bombarding her with cringey messages.

The picture goes full bore on the skin-crawling creepiness of Sid’s slow-motion car crash into internet ignominy – it’s amusing, in a fist-chewingly uncomfortable way – but it then attempts to redeem the character in the final act, not wholly successfully.

  • On digital platforms from 14 November

Watch a trailer for Dear Elizabeth.
Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.