Teenage boys are usually expected to want to play sports. It’s a default setting that many cultures need to shake off. Even if some show promise or prowess in kicking or hurling a ball, that might not be where a person’s passion truly lives. The antithesis of this, of course, lies within the performing arts. There is a lot more leeway when it comes to interpretation or one’s value when it comes to discovering the beats of a story. The difference between these two ideals comes before Lee Knight’s A Friend of Dorothy even begins. This is a treasure of a film–Knight has created a sanctuary for anyone who has ever felt different or thought they couldn’t live a life they secretly desired.
When Alistair Nwachukwu’s JJ accidentally kicks his football into a nearby backyard, he meets Miriam Margolyes’s Dorothy. If she opened the door for me, I would have a hard time not just yelling, “Miriam Margolyes!” to her face, but that’s just because she is such an acting legend. Her Dorothy invites him inside to lead him to her garden, but she asks him to open a can of prunes for her, since her fingers don’t have the dexterity they used to. When she sees JJ eyeing her huge bookshelf of plays, she takes a chance and asks him to pluck a text from the shelf. It just so happens to be Matthew López’s The Inheritance, a beast of a play whose words are as heady and hypnotic as the spine is rich.
Day in, day out, JJ returns to Dorothy’s house so he can recite a new text and take a play home. There is something quite beautiful in their relationship, and Knight shows how art does not belong to just one generation but can be passed down from one to another. How we interpret plays, books, and films can vary depending on our particular background and experience. We have become a world that expects everyone to agree with our personal opinions about different kinds of art, when discussions on themes, writing, and style only lead to exciting connections. Do not mistake A Friend of Dorothy‘s warmth for naïveté.
Margolyes is easy to love, especially when Dorothy implores her young ward to continue with his passions, and Nwachukwu is a star. So many people will see themselves (or someone they know) in JJ, but he fuses a curiosity with his quiet intelligence. Knight, in his directorial debut, creates strong intimacy between two unlikely friends. He shows that expressing yourself, even if you are interpreting a play, can lift you to a higher plane. Knight’s care with his actors is clear.
A Friend of Dorothy is generous, high-spirited, and the kind of film we need. Our differences only make us stronger.
A Friend of Dorothy will play as part of HollyShorts’ Golden Age program on August 13.
