Maurice Flitcroft: top related news

There's a recent trend in Hollywood biopics to focus on a person that was maligned by the media, sometimes even by culture at large, and reframe their narrative. Think 2017's I, Tonya, 2019's Richard Jewell, or last year's The Eyes of Tammy Faye, to name some of the better-received examples. Craig Roberts' The Phantom of the Open is a new entry in that canon, and a good one. But unlike those listed above, it happily plays as a comedy for most of its runtime. The movie's approach to its real-life subject is less serious than sincere, in a way that makes sense after learning the screenwriter, Simon Farnaby, also co-wrote Paddington 2. There is no denial that much of what the protagonist does is funny, and worthy of laughter. The storytelling often goes out of its way to prompt that reaction in its viewers. But Roberts' film succeeds where much contemporary coverage failed because of how invested it is in the difference between laughing with him, as the audience is taught to do, and laughing at him.