Pretty Red Dress

Warm, self-assured and free-flowing, Pretty Red Dress is the long overdue expansion of Black masculinity that the big screen has been crying out for. It’s about daring to be different, but mostly just yearning to be understood.

Pretty Red Dress is both playful and defiant, swept along on a tide of toe-tapping tunes that tug at the heartstrings, yet unafraid to face up to complex personal issues while still maintaining its solidly mainstream appeal.

What could be truly radical here feels diluted by the film’s more practical efforts to market itself as feel-good fare... Still, Edwards has shown real confidence with her camera.

Edwards and her team aren’t afraid of contradictions; in fact, confusion is what Pretty Red Dress feeds on.

Mostly it’s a sweetly played story that celebrates warmth and understanding.

This is a terrific film. It’s original, has heft, is magnificently performed, and it blew me away.

In her debut feature, writer-director Dionne Edwards has created a nuanced portrayal of Black masculinity, as well as the binaries, stereotypes, and expectations that can stifle us all.

… a feel-good story in the vein of Pride, Kinky Boots or Billy Elliot …

Pretty Red Dress, to its great credit, doesn't put anybody in a box... Maybe we're all a bit off-key. We get it. It's a good point, just hammered home a bit too hard.

Alexandra Burke shines in an all-too-neat look at Black identity.