{"id":433559,"date":"2026-09-12T04:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T04:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/433559\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T04:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T04:58:10","slug":"movie-review-andrew-garfield-in-the-uprising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/433559\/","title":{"rendered":"Movie review: Andrew Garfield in The Uprising"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writer\/director Paul Greengrass made his name with a cin\u00e9ma v\u00e9rit\u00e9 style of filmmaking that brought immediacy and depth to three Jason Bourne films, United 93, Captain Phillips<\/a>, and more. In The Uprising<\/a>, he uses those skills to tell the story of the so-called Peasants\u2019 Revolt in 14th century England.<\/p>\n

Greengrass wastes no time starting the main plot as Ploughman (Andrew Garfield) and his fellow villagers object to onerous taxes put on them by the country\u2019s nobility, led by the young King Richard II (Woody Norman), to fund an ongoing war. Ploughman initiates a violent response over the tone-deaf \u2014 and unseemly \u2014 way the king\u2019s guard go about their business, and the rebellion soon starts to spread across the countryside, with the citizens looking for a degree of autonomy.<\/p>\n

The ever-expanding group makes their way toward London to try to make their case to the king himself. Meanwhile, the king\u2019s top advisors, including Archbishop Sudbury (Stephen Dillane) and Treasurer Hales (Tom Hollander), try to usurp power from the inexperienced monarch even as the king\u2019s mother (Katherine Waterston) tries to get him to be more assertive.<\/p>\n

The history of the English monarchy is long and lurid, as Shakespeare detailed in multiple plays, including Richard II. Though the events in the film took place almost 650 years ago, it\u2019s easy to see parallels between what the peasants were fighting for and modern-day politics. Greengrass\u2019 storytelling intent is solid, and the righteous anger the citizens feel is initially relatable and palpable.<\/p>\n

But the populism theme of the story soon gets bogged down in drudgery and minutiae that is difficult to understand, especially when the details are lost in the thick regional English accents. The leaders of the rebels \u2014 including John Ball (Jamie Bell), Wat Tyler (Cosmo Jarvis), and Alyce (Thomasin McKenzie) \u2014 are shown doing a lot of planning, but the strong feelings they have about their quest don\u2019t come across well, leaving the audience as passive observers.<\/p>\n

When there is action, Greengrass and his team employ a frenetic style that is not great for comprehension. While the gist of what is happening and what side is winning is legible, individual moments go by so quickly so as to be nearly meaningless. Save for Ploughman, any connection that has been made with various characters proves futile, as Greengrass doesn\u2019t seem to have any time for emotion. Scenes that should feel thrilling or heartbreaking instead come off as empty.<\/p>\n

Garfield is a two-time Oscar nominee who has done great work across multiple genres. He\u2019s fine in this role, but whether it\u2019s the story, the filmmaking, or something else, he\u2019s not as captivating as usual. The same goes for other strong actors like Bell, McKenzie, Dillane, Hollander, and Waterston, who each seem to be giving their all to their performances but are somehow muted in the process.<\/p>\n

Done right, The Uprising could have been a rip-roaring account of people standing up against their oppressors. What Greengrass has made, though, is a film that can\u2019t translate its medieval story for a modern audience and concentrates too much on unexciting elements and too little on thrilling ones.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

The Uprising is now playing in theaters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Writer\/director Paul Greengrass made his name with a cin\u00e9ma v\u00e9rit\u00e9 style of filmmaking that brought immediacy and depth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[144888,1636,1637,27164,576,82,84,83],"class_list":["post-433559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-andrew-garfield","tag-film","tag-movies","tag-paul-greengrass","tag-reviews","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}