Pretty Red Dress is not the movie you will likely expect it to be. Opening with a young man named Travis (Natey Jones) leaving prison, it is clear that the former drug dealer feels that he has reached a dead end in his life, unsure where to go next. In your typical British drama, what would follow is a bleak story as Travis ultimately discovers that he has no choice but to get sucked back into a life of crime, a never-ending vicious circle. However, in the feature debut of writer/director Dionne Edwards, we instead see Travis find liberation when he tries on his partner’s gorgeous red dress.
However, whilst it doesn’t follow in the tradition of these dramas, Edwards is keen to emphasise to GamesRadar+ it was initially inspired by them: “I enjoy the likes of Top Boy, Kidulthood etc. and when I was coming up with the character of Travis, I thought about his background, how he has been in prison and involved in crime, which made me think about those movies. I thought it would be interesting if we started the film similarly with a guy coming out of jail, but it wasn’t contrived, it was a loose inspiration. It makes you think the film will be one thing but then it takes a left turn. The theme of prison also symbolises something - he’s physically coming out of prison but there’s an internal prison too.”
