Parents' Guide to Postcards from London

Nearly 25 years after his debut movie Postcards from America, writer-director Steve McLean returns with this heavily stylized drama exploring similar themes. Transporting the story—what there is of it—to a neon-drenched Soho, Postcards from London follows the journey of Dickinson's Jim as his mind is opened to an overwhelming visual world. Jim's overwhelm has a name—Stendhal syndrome—but it's easy for viewers to also feel somewhat engulfed by the movie's visuals. The entire production was filmed on sound stages, and every last detail of the set, lighting, cinematography, and sound design bombards the senses at every turn. It has a theatrical quality; everything feels very "staged," characters walk through frozen scenes, rooms are bathed in red, there's a sense of the whole thing existing outside of place and time. While it harks back to the neon-lit glory days of 1970s and '80s Soho, there are elements set in the present day and plenty of scenes that sweep back to Renaissance times. There are constant references to art—the work of Velázquez, Caravaggio, Francis Bacon, and Lucian Freud. Keen eyes and ears will notice nods to other queer cultural figures like Derek Jarman and Oscar Wilde, among others. It's ambitious, and there's no doubt it's fascinating to look at, but it's muddled at times, the humor doesn't land, and the tone never quite comes together enough to make the narrative make sense. Dickinson himself is a strong pull, both visually and in terms of his acting prowess, but even though he does what he can with the material, there's just not enough substance there to make much of an impact.