Film reviews: Andrew Garfield among strong cast rescuing 'The Uprising' from frenzied editing

Plus a Cork-based director's documentary on the lesbian community in 1970s Ireland

Andrew Garfield as Ploughman in The Uprising; A still from Lesbian Lines, Picture: Cáit Fahey; Jeremy Allen White as Jeff Horwitz and Mikey Madison as Frances Hauge in The Socal Reckoning

The Uprising

★★★☆☆

Based on the true story of the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt, The Uprising (15A) follows Ploughman (Andrew Garfield), exhausted and profoundly wounded by the loss of his wife and children to the plague. He is not alone.

Huge numbers of people were wiped out by the plague, leaving those who survived traumatised and struggling to rebuild their lives. Peasants work for landlords, handing over most of their meagre earnings in taxes, yet most barely earn enough to survive. The ruling classes show little empathy, instead demanding that the peasants work even harder.

It is tax collection day, and not only do the peasants have to suffer the indignity of paying a death tax for family members who have died, largely due to starvation, but they also have to stand by as young girls are assaulted by soldiers to prove whether they are old enough to be taxed as adults.

A priest (Cork’s Donal Finn) tries unsuccessfully to reason with the soldiers; Ploughman can’t take it any longer and attacks the magistrate and the soldiers. After a brief, bloody fight, Ploughman is celebrated as a champion, but he doesn’t want to be a leader.

Wat Tyler (Cosmo Jarvis) and revolutionary priest John Ball (Jamie Bell) are trying to get the people to revolt, but they need a champion. Ploughman fits the bill. With some convincing, Ploughman agrees to be part of something bigger than just standing up to local lords. The peasants will march on London and seek a meeting with the king.

At just 14 years old, England’s king Richard II (Woody Norman) is largely controlled by his council. They use their influence to protect their wealth and steer the king away from anything that might take from them power.

Richard’s mother, Joan of Kent (Katherine Waterston), tries to get through to her son that he must start acting like a king, but the boy is afraid.

As the Ploughman and more than 20,000 commoners advance on London, they are given a guarantee that Richard will meet them along the Thames. When he gets there, his council decides it’s too dangerous for him to leave his boat, and a new plan is set, much to the annoyance of the rebels.

They do get their chance to meet their king, but a series of violent events ensures an uncertain fate for all.

The Uprising struggles under the weight of what seems like poor editing. Some scenes are rushed, jumping from one event to another. It feels like a three-hour film that someone decided to chop up with no real consideration for the overall film.

The dialogue can be clunky; it tries to tack on a pointless love story, and the handheld camera work is headache-inducing, but the cast of highly talented actors puts their best acting heads on to pull the film through its many issues.

Grim, messy, but well-acted and intense, The Uprising is a missed opportunity that barely earns its three stars thanks to Garfield and co.

Lesbian Lines

★★★★☆

In Lesbian Lines (12A), Cork-based director Cara Holmes turns her lens on the women behind a quiet lifeline for Irish lesbians: an underground network of phone lines where callers could find advice, solidarity, and, perhaps most importantly, someone willing to listen.

The documentary is not just a look at the hardships faced by lesbians living in Ireland in the 1970s. It also celebrates lesbian history, friendship, and community.

Holmes’ assured direction brings together contemporary interviews with volunteers, dramatic recreations, and a wealth of archive material, creating a vivid portrait of a community carving out space for itself.

The volunteers talk about the friendship, kinship, and sheer fun that came with discovering a community of women like themselves. There were parties, nights out, and opportunities to meet other lesbians in a world where such spaces were still rare.

In these stories, Lesbian Lines finds some of its greatest warmth: alongside fear and hardship, there was laughter, friendship, love, and a growing sense of belonging.

In a beautiful touch, Holmes brings the volunteers together with the actors who play their younger selves. It is a quietly moving moment, creating a powerful connection between generations and reminding us of the legacy, history, and, above all, the enduring importance of community.

Lesbian Lines is a rallying call to remember the past and keep working for the future, yet it is also a celebration of the joy and power of community. Wonderful stuff.

The Social Reckoning

★★★★☆

Aaron Sorkin, who brought us The Social Network in 2010, returns to Mark Zuckerberg’s world with The Social Reckoning (15A).

The Wall Street Journal investigative reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) believes that something is wrong at Facebook but needs the evidence. Mikey Madison plays Frances Haugen, a Facebook employee who has noticed a worrying pattern in Facebook’s inner workings: people interested in certain subjects are being nudged towards increasingly extreme right-wing and politically dangerous groups.

Jeff needs an insider to prove his hunch. Frances gives Jeff a trail of digital crumbs, each one leading to another, until what first seemed like a handful of troubling discoveries becomes a mountain of evidence.

While Jeff and Frances work on what will become The Wall Street Journal’s explosive The Facebook Files investigation, Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong) prepares to face a congressional hearing.

The film is full of tech jargon, but it is easy to follow, even for less tech-savvy audience members.

This is thanks to Jeff, a confessed Luddite who relies on Frances to explain what is happening to him — and, in turn, to us.

It starts off a little slowly, but once it shifts into full investigative mode, it becomes engrossing. Allen White and Madison have a quiet, understated chemistry, while Strong is terrifyingly cold.

Sorkin’s trademark snappy dialogue keeps the film moving at a brisk pace, even when the subject matter becomes dense.

The final act, which explores Facebook’s role in the events surrounding the attack on the Capitol, is deeply moving and gives the film an emotional weight that lingers long after the credits roll.

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