Wild Nights with Emily (2018)

Wild Nights with Emily: Directed by Madeleine Olnek. With Molly Shannon, Amy Seimetz, Susan Ziegler, Brett Gelman. Dramatization of the little known side of the writer Emily Dickinson’s life, in particular, her relationship with another woman.

“u0026quot;Because I could not stop for death,nHe kindly stopped for me.u0026quot; Emily Dickinsonu003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMost cultural historians had pegged Emily Dickinson (Molly Shannon) as about dead long before her time when they depicted her to be shy, reclusive, and virginal. Recent scholarship, upon viewing letters from her to sister-in-law Susan (Susan Zieglar) shows a secret passionate love between the two. Hurray for those of us who suspected that poetic soul had more than death on her mind.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDirector/writer Madeleine Olnik bouncily constructs the story with different episodes, some flash backs, to give it the feel, as one critic puts it, of a u0026quot;Victorian vaudeville.u0026quot; Yes, it has some stock characters, almost winking eyes breaking the wall, and laughable social conventions. More than that, however, it has the roguish tone of a character who is brainy but not above unconventional high-jinx in the love category.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHappily, some of Emilyu0026#39;s prose and poetry is run across the screen at appropriate times in the jagged sequence of mildly torrid scenes. In a sense, these are as minimalist like Emilyu0026#39;s poetry, suggesting much more than the shots reveal. So be it. A poet suggests and does not report.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlthough Wild Nights with Emily is titillatingly titled, the film itself is a rather mild exposition of a similarly mild poet, on the outside, mind you. For us English majors, itu0026#39;s nectar; for the rest, itu0026#39;s entertaining vaudeville.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;Dying is a wild night and a new road.u0026quot; Dickinson”