"When Queen Elizabeth I asks her court alchemist to show her England in the future, she’s transported 400 years to a post-apocalyptic wasteland of roving girl gangs, an all-powerful media mogul, fascistic police, scattered filth, and twisted sex." - The Criterion Collection

Rating: NOT RATED

Runtime: 1 hour 46 minutes

Genre(s): Comedy, Drama, Fantasy

Released: February 1978

Directed by: Derek Jarman

Written by: Derek Jarman

Starring: Jenny Runacre, Nell Campbell (as Little Nell), Toyah Willcox, and Jordan

It is very easy to think of Jubilee as a more female-focused and dramatic version of A Clockwork Orange, as it takes place in a world of chaos and senseless violence that comes very close to mirroring the world you see in the film mentioned above.

The parts with Queen Elizabeth I felt out of place, and I believe that if you cut out all of those parts, the only thing you miss out on is David Brandon's performance as Ariel. It is almost as if the film had no plot, so the Queen scenes were added last minute to form some concrete reason for its existence. The acting is mostly good, but with a dramatic flair that comes close to just being cringeworthy. It is the kind of acting you expect from a stage play, not a movie. The characters are all interesting and have a mad hatter/hare quality about them.

This film has absolutely fantastic monologues in it. I admit that some of the moments are a bit pre-edgelord-emo-kid from the 2000s, but they were what I enjoyed the most about Jubilee. Overall, the film comes off as very artsy political/social satire wrapped in a punk package.

I originally watched and reviewed this movie on August 13th, 2016. While cleaning up old posts, I had a fond memory of this one, and since my original review was so short, I decided to rewatch and see if I still felt the same. Aspects of the original review are still there, but I have expanded on a few things. My original rating was 7/10, and upon a second viewing, I dropped it down.

Rating: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ 6.5/10

Should you watch it?

🤔 Do you like punk fashion and music? Do you like film history/cult films? If you answered yes, then I definitely recommend it. 

 As of this week, Wondermajica is now six years old. I started, not having much of an idea of what exactly I wanted to do, and that still hasn't changed. I would like to think that I have improved in that period, but imposter syndrome is a heck of a thing to ignore.

I have had different types of posts in the past six years. I have mostly done reviews, but what I have reviewed has changed over time. I'm now back to the point where I just review what I want instead of what I think might bring in more views. I'm still working on not being hard on myself for the quality of my writing and how often post. I have made promises of different types of content that would never appear thanks to my lack of motivation and mental health struggles. Plus, if I am truly being honest, I am just so moody and changeable that my interests and ideas just....come and go way too quickly for me to properly form them into something substantial. I have learned that the easiest way to bury an idea I have for something is to talk about it publically. As soon as other people know my brain decides I can't do it anymore. The imaginary pressure I put on myself just becomes too much.

Even though I have spent way too much time putting unnecessary stress on myself due to this blog, I am proud of myself for keeping it going this long. It is proof that I can stick to something even if it gets tough.

So what's next?

I just mentioned that when I publically talk about things it shuts down all motivation to do the things. So as for content...I'm gonna keep that to myself for now. However, there are a few things I can go ahead and talk about. 

A couple of years ago I finally changed the blog layout to something that works better both visually and for SEO purposes. The problem with this was that I had 4 years' worth of posts that no longer were properly formatted. I have never had an issue with this in the past on previous blogs so I was unsure what to do about this and the result was...nothing. So for the last 2 years, images from old posts have been wonky and covering up some of the text and just overall looking outdated. I have mentioned tackling this issue in the past, but it is still not something I have completed. I could not decide if I should just fix the images or if I should completely rework the post (which is why there have been several reposts over the past few years). So, long story short, I'm back to fixing that problem. 

Posts that just need images fixed will just have the images fixed. However, if the format is also wonky (from all the styles I have gone through over the years) or I'm just not satisfied with the quality of the post, it will either be deleted or reposted. I want the blog to get back to a place where I am proud to show it to people. I don't want to worry about people looking at the messy posts and forming their opinion just on those. There is also a profile issue. I started this blog using a different account. That old account no longer exists, which means that old posts written under that account have no author anymore. So all of those also need to be fixed. So yeah, there will be a regular occurrence of reposts for the next bit, but don't worry! I will still be posting new stuff and I'm going to do my best to space out the reposts so they are not back to back. 

This review was originally posted on November 21st, 2016. It has been updated to meet new blog formats and standards.

The first bit of this book is spent giving the reader a bit of a back story to help them understand what is going on and how humanity was put into the position it is in. In preparation for the Doom, thirteen continuums are created. One holds backups to all flora and fauna discovered at that point. The others house humans. Some are sent deep under the sea and earth. Others are located out in space. Each group of humans has one member tasked with carrying the Beacon. The hope is that these Beacons will lead everyone back to the first continuum after Earth has had time to heal and is once again livable.

The story we get to experience takes place around one thousand years after the Doom.

Myra Jackson, her father, and her younger brother Tink live deep under the sea aboard the 13th continuum. All knowledge and items from before the Doom are banned. The Synod, led by Padre Flavius,  runs everything and believes that returning to the surface will just bring further doom to them.

Captain Aero Wright is part of an interstellar colony aboard the second continuum. Everyone on the space vessel is trained in a military school and emotions are considered both inefficient and a sign of weakness. All marriages are arranged at birth and only exist to help keep the population steady.

In the beginning, the story felt very unoriginal. The back and forth between the multiple perspectives also felt a little abrupt. The actions taken by the characters were very predictable. This story fell victim to several common YA tropes, the most annoying to me being how quickly a character was willing to forgive their friends. It also had the “oh everything is messed up, let's immediately take action without properly processing anything” problem. It does get better, though, especially the last 30%. By the end, I was actually looking forward to the next book in the trilogy.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 3/5

Should you read it?

It is the first of a really interesting trilogy, so definitely!

Book & Author Information: Goodreads

Published January 1st, 2016 by Turner Publishing

Jennifer Brody: Goodreads, Official Site