We All Lie My Darling (2021)

Now regardless of it's authenticity, this has got to be one of the worst acted films I have seen a very long time. Set in Sydney, it tells the story of the lives and loves of a group of friends in what is ostensibly a welcoming, thriving and inclusive community. "Michelle" (Ayeshah Rose) takes a different approach to "coming out". She firmly believes it is a matter of personal choice and not something that should be done to accommodate the expectations of others - a view that seems to emancipate "Kat" (Daniella Serret). Meantime, the rest of her friends seem to be wrestling with the usual fears of ageing, loneliness, lust v love, trust issues, yada yada. It's quite a nice looking movie and Rose does have a certain charisma on screen, but the rest of this is just a bit of an over-scripted, humourless, yawn. Maybe it's because I have long since ceased to be a thirty-something, but the angst and weariness of the personalities here just wanted me to scream out - "try living this lifestyle in a wet and presbyterian Scotland in the 1970s, baby! Get over yourselves". Eighty minutes of my life I will never get back - not for me, sorry.