watch Wuthering Heights romantic drama film 2026
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00:00In case you've been living under a rock, people are not happy about the new adaptation of Wuthering
00:04Heights by Emerald Fennell of Promising Young Woman and Saltburn fame. Or, should we say, infamy.
00:09It's so weird to be like, yes, I had this private showing and by the end everyone wanted to eat
00:13Jacob Elordio. Characters repeatedly call him a racial slur for Romani people,
00:18what were you imagining? When the book mentioned Heathcliff as a Lasker, what were you imagining?
00:25Oktoberfest version of Wuthering Heights. It is! But it is now cemented as a book cover. Forever,
00:31the words Emily Bronte and this movie are together. They're bound. When the movie is actually more like
00:36a self-insert Wattpad fanfiction written by a 14 year old. Big spoilers ahead in case you've somehow
00:41missed all of this discourse that's been going on for about a year now. If you haven't read the book
00:45before, you'll still understand this video, but if you are a fan of the book, you will appreciate
00:50this video more. Wuthering Heights is not really a romance, but Emerald Fennell is not the only one
00:54who's seen it as one. It's a story of obsession, race, class, of othering in the impacts of cruelty,
01:00tormented love, intergenerational trauma and revenge. I read it when I was a depressed 19 or 20
01:06year old because I heard that it was like the greatest love story of all time and it only made
01:10me more depressed and also confused. What about all of this cruelty is love? But that is the point,
01:16it is a gothic romance, a cautionary tale of sorts. It's a toxic relationship and all of these impacts
01:22that are created from this cruelty. Emerald has said that she wants to make us cry so much that
01:26we vomit, but I was sitting there like this for most of the movie, and I was genuinely looking
01:30forward to this toxic whirlwind romance and having a good cry. And I defend modern reimaginings of
01:36classics because we've arguably gotten some great pieces of work out of it. Emma became clueless,
01:40Dangerous liaisons gave us cruel intentions. Tammy of the Shrew gave us the masterpiece that is 10
01:45things I hate about you. They get the core themes of the story and adapt them to modern times in
01:49ways that are
01:50relatable to modern audiences. Tempestuous? Heinous bitch is the term used most often.
01:57And I fully support this because there is clear respect for the original work. Baz Luhrmann made
02:02Romeo plus Julia into this visual, musical, iconic feast paired with the Bard's own words, but it was
02:09largely hated, including by famed critic Roger Ebert. And there are people like myself today who utterly adore it.
02:18Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio gave us this haunting dark version of the story. And more recently
02:23with Frankenstein 2, which people have had backlash about. But so long as the core themes are kept to,
02:28we can get brilliant and amazing reimaginings of these great classics. Were we really expecting her
02:34to be faithful when we saw her eating this giant strawberry? No. This is not Wuthering Heights,
02:39this is Quivering Heights, Fifty Shades of Bronte. It could have been called The Undoing of Bronte's
02:44Bodice, or More in the Moors, or simply More. The connection between the book and the movie and
02:50not even Second Cousins twice removed. Think of the Wuthering Heights book as this rich tapestry,
02:54and this movie has taken a few of the threads out of it and mixed it in with a wannabe,
02:58lusty,
02:59shiny fever dream. And you've got something entirely different over here. As Alison Whitmore writes,
03:03finally, a smooth-brained Wuthering Heights. And I was speaking with Rachel from Girl on Film,
03:08I'll link her channel for you down below. And she said, and I quote,
03:11If the aesthetic is different, the plot is different, the themes are different, the soul is
03:15different, then what is the point? Heathcliff is transformed from a bitter victim of classism
03:19and racism into a sexual sadist? Their mutual wildness is replaced with a sexual affair and
03:24kinky proclivities. It has only the bare bones of Wuthering Heights, almost to the point that I feel
03:28the name is purely rage-bait marketing. And it got me. When I wasn't bored, I was mad. So I
03:33went and
03:33watched the movie yesterday because can we critique a work without seeing it for ourselves? No.
03:37Centering whiteness in a privileged lens. So Emerald Fennell both wrote and directed this film.
03:42And she's been very clear in interviews that she doesn't think that anybody can actually
03:45adapt a book as dense as this. And thinks that all adaptations should have quotation marks around them.
03:50I can't say I'm making Wuthering Heights.
03:53It's not possible. What I can say is I'm making a version of it.
03:56This movie came about because of how she remembered Wuthering Heights when she read it at the age of 14.
04:01There's a version that I remembered reading that isn't quite real. And there's a version that I
04:08where I wanted stuff to happen that never happened. And so it is Wuthering Heights and it isn't.
04:16And it really does feel like a self-insert fanfic with a big budget and a stunted perspective.
04:21You can really feel it from the dialogue onwards. I was hopeful when it was the child portion at the
04:25start. And then it just kept on getting worse. It's like an entire mix of the Princess Bride
04:31without the wit. Meets Fifty Shades of Grey. Meets a failed attempt at cruel intentions.
04:35With massive overtones of Gone with the Wind. And I have looked at the films that she uses her
04:40sources for her inspiration. And I was quite shocked to see that like Gone with the Wind wasn't listed
04:46because there are so many moments in this where it genuinely felt like Rhett Butler was about to talk.
04:52Sir you are no gentleman. And you miss are no lady. And that Katherine herself was modeled after
04:57Scarlett O'Hara. No I don't think I will kiss you. Although you need kissing badly. That's what's
05:02wrong with you. You should be kissed and often. Moments like this could have easily fit into the
05:06movie. She said that Jacob Elordi, ah Heathcliff, reminded her of the guy that she saw on the cover
05:11when she read the book at 14. It looked exactly like the Heathcliff on my sort of very very well
05:16worn
05:17copy of Wuthering Heights that I had since I was a teenager. And so I have gone and dug around
05:21and found all of
05:22the covers I've been able to from the past which have characters on the front. And yeah it does
05:27look like he has been misrepresented as a white man with sideburns. So you can see why a child may
05:32think this due to the wrong person being represented on the cover. But Emerald is a few years older than
05:36me. She's about 40. Meanwhile this was the cover of the book that I read. I should have known that
05:40it wasn't going to be a straight out romance. But you evolved from your 14 year old self. And these
05:44are
05:44not teenagers that we're seeing on screen. Our leads in this 2026 movie are white Australians and the
05:49people of colour play supporting roles to their love story. This is where colour blind casting
05:54utterly fails. Because it's specifically Heathcliff's treatment as a Romani or person of colour
05:58that he is treated so cruelly by everybody around him. Including abuse at the hands of his new family.
06:04In fact the thoughts, you're too old to be acting like this, crossed my mind multiple times whilst I
06:09was watching this movie because we've got 35 year old Margot Robbie acting like a spoilt brat teenager.
06:14And it's understandable for Catherine in the book because, spoilers, she passes away at the age of 18
06:20or 19. So when reading the book you can forgive her ignorance and selfishness because as teenagers
06:24you are often like that. I know I was as much as at the time I didn't like to think
06:29that I was.
06:30Could this be a reflection of Emerald Fennell herself? Because she couldn't read the character who
06:34is described multiple times as having dark skin in the book. Only being able to imagine the love
06:38interest to be a white man and, almost casting herself, Catherine is a blonde woman. Very much
06:44like herself as opposed to the wild unruly brunette of the book. And so here is the main family tree
06:49from the book. And here is what you get in the movie. You can see that there is a lot
06:53that is
06:53slashed out of this. For anybody who is a fan of the book and looking forward to seeing these characters
06:57brought to life, oh no honey you're gonna have a bad time. I'm gonna give you a bit of a
07:00recap of the
07:01movie here so you can see what it actually is. We start with a classic Disney approach of the mother
07:05already being dead and gone. And she switches Catherine's father to be the alcoholic gambler
07:09abusive man as opposed to her brother Hindley. Because in this version there is no Hindley at all.
07:14One of Mr Earnshaw's trips to Liverpool which was the biggest port for slave trading in the UK.
07:19In the movie he brought back this random boy because he took pity on him for being left outside.
07:23In the book he's described as a dark-skinned Romani slur, which could also be used as a label
07:28given to mixed-race people. A dirty, ragged, black-haired child. Yet the boy from Adolescence plays him
07:32and he does a very good job but I think that he would have been fantastic as Hindley. I wish
07:37that
07:37literature kept that character in. And Mr Earnshaw kind of gifts Catherine him as a pet. Like she's
07:42the one who even names him Heathcliff. Because we all knew that this movie was going to be very hot
07:45and heavy I was like oh this could be set up a very interesting power play dynamic. But it's more
07:49farm boy devoted love a la la Princess Bride. As you wish. He's a stable boy relegated to the attic
07:54above the barn and he just utterly dotes on Cathy. He'll do anything for her. He'll never leave her.
07:59Seriously he might as well be Wesley. As you wish. She's a spoiled brat. She's selfish and
08:07self-centered. Nellie over here is Catherine's companion. Her father is of noble blood but her
08:11mother is not. Which means that she's an illegitimate child. Which means that she gets
08:15terribly mistreated. As soon as Heathcliff comes onto the scene, Catherine just abandons Nellie.
08:19And I really wish the Emerald actually dove more into this dynamic and this jealousy. But if I want that
08:24I should just watch Jennifer's body. Catherine and Heathcliff are like this and it's because he's
08:28self-sacrificing that he tells her father that he's the reason that they're late for his birthday.
08:33So he gets utterly lashed by her father and then this cuts forward to seeing the scars on his back
08:37as a grown adult. And Catherine is super jealous of the new neighbors who have just moved across the
08:42way. The Lintons in their very fancy house. And she is utterly incensed that they haven't come to
08:46visit her because she is so important obviously. You see what I mean about Scarlet vibes? So one day
08:51she storms over to the property and peers over the high stone fence. And we see Edgar who is outside
08:56with not his sister but his ward Isabella. Isabella is giving Cecile from Cruel Intentions vibes and I
09:01think that you can pick up where I'm putting down here. My, what an adorable shirt you're wearing.
09:06Thanks, my father took me on a trip to Australia. How are things down under?
09:12Blossoming I hope? Bastion!
09:16Isabella spots Catherine who gets scared and falls down to the ground badly. And she hurriedly poses
09:20prettily to be seen by him. She stays at the Lintons house for six to seven weeks while she recovers
09:25from her terrible injury to only come back as this transformed lady back to Wuthering Heights.
09:30And she is utterly disgusted by where she lives. Poor lover boy can't match up.
09:34What, they run out of soap down at the Piggly Wiggly since I left?
09:37And she goes to confront him and they have this big fight and then that night she's like,
09:40oh I need to go apologise to him. So she climbs up to his attic above the barn.
09:44Then Zilla and the Stableway come crashing in and this is where you see her lying on the floor looking
09:48through the cracks to see what they're doing. This is meant to be her awakening of sorts.
09:53Because then Heathcliff puts his hand over her mouth and then covers her eyes as well.
09:57Nearly laying on top of her in this moment that's clearly meant to like, get your juices going.
10:01But I was just sitting there like, okay. And because of this moment getting her all fired up,
10:07she goes to the moors and relieves herself behind a rock. And then Heathcliff discovers her
10:11and she is utterly embarrassed by it but he says he doesn't care. And he grabs her by her corset
10:16strings lifting her up and they have this passionate moment. And again this is meant
10:19to be a really hot moment but I didn't really feel it because we don't see the characters
10:23like, have this dark enmeshment or anything. You can't get payoff detention that hasn't been created.
10:29But she says that she can't and she returns the house to only see her father, who is drunk,
10:33having to be propped up by two servants. And then Nellie tells her that Edgar is there to visit her
10:38and she's like, oh my goodness. She feels so ashamed and it's completely understandable. However,
10:42Edgar is the nicest person ever and he is just there to care for her. And he proposes to her
10:48off screen, which we only find out about when she's having this whole turmoil moment of,
10:53what am I meant to do because it hurts in here? And this is where she and Nellie have this
10:59confiding
10:59moment. Catherine lashes out at Nellie saying something akin to, you're never going to be loved,
11:04but sneaky Nellie spots Heathcliff outside of the house. And so she loudly says something like,
11:08well, if you love Edgar Linton, then are you going to marry him? And Catherine says that she
11:13and Heathcliff are the same, but it would degrade her to marry him. They would be beggars. Which he
11:18hears through the door and storms off in a scene that's utterly reminiscent of this part from Gone
11:23with the Wind. And the next day, Cathy just waits out on the moors, convinced that he's going to return
11:27to her, but he doesn't. Money! What are you talking- He's got a lot of money! And she puts
11:32off saying yes to Edgar
11:33for an entire year as she's getting laced into this corset and she's like, tighter, tighter,
11:37because, you know, you need to punish yourself because, like, you're feeling so bad, you need
11:41to feel something, blah, blah, blah, blah. Tight up, Nellie, but you will not breathe. Catherine is
11:46dissociating. She is unhappily married to genuinely a really lovely guy. He wants her to be happy,
11:52to feel safe and he adores her. She returns home at Christmas to see her father and the place is
11:56in
11:57disarray and he is mean and bitter and cruel to her. She returns to Edgar crying and he's like,
12:01you never have to return now, you're safe here. Like, he is such a lovely guy. I genuinely feel
12:07so bad for this man. He travels a bunch for work though, so we know what's coming up. Lady Chatterley
12:11lovers moment. And lo, Catherine goes out for a walk on the moors and who should she see come
12:16through the fog? Heathcliff after his glow up. I need to make some of myself. You about done?
12:22He's got Rich's gold tooth and a swagger and is coming across with a smoulder much like Flynn Rider.
12:27You broke my smoulder. In the book, he's described as,
12:30He's a dark-skinned slur in aspect and dress and manners a gentleman. She brings him home,
12:35which her husband kindly obliges whilst he settles in. And who, Isabella is hot and happy for him.
12:40Once again, it's a seal from cruel intentions. This is her. And he reveals that he's bought
12:44Wuthering Heights, which utterly shocks Catherine. They have a confrontation in the sparkling blue
12:48drawing room and he confronts her about abandoning, but she feels like he did it to her. It really does
12:53feel like a fanfic script at this point because it's so much exposition without really feeling
12:58anything that's happening. Catherine insists that Isabella come into the room and she tries
13:02to start tempting him with her. And this is where her and Isabella's friendship starts to fracture
13:07because, well, Isabella likes him and obviously nobody but Catherine can handle someone as dark
13:14and broody and terrible as Heathcliff. He's cruel. He'll destroy her. Isabella has now effectively become
13:19a toy for them both to play with. Turns out Cathy is pregnant with Edgar's child and he is utterly
13:23thrilled about this. But Nellie has to go off and travel for work, so whatever will she do with
13:28this convenient fact that she's already pregnant? Huh. And now the affair begins, which I wouldn't
13:33exactly call two souls colliding in a storm. More like PG-13 vanilla and picturesque settings.
13:39Her father dies of his alcoholism as well and the way that they display this is in this really
13:43incredibly corny way. And Nellie keeps on noticing them and all I was thinking was...
13:48The lovers are discovered! And in the end, should someone die?
13:54And this convenient pregnancy means that she doesn't have to worry about her husband at all.
13:58Not that she really cared about him to begin with. She's a selfish, entitled 35-year-old brat.
14:02And she's always saying to him, we need to stop, blah, blah, blah, blah. Heathcliff reveals that Nellie
14:06saw him on the night that she was deciding whether or not to marry Edgar Linton. So he thought that
14:11she knew
14:11that he could overhear that conversation. That's why he's so angry with her for being so cruel and callous to
14:16him.
14:16Kathy confronts Nellie in this incredibly good scene and I wish that she had actually been cast
14:22as Nellie herself. Like, she really channels this mean bitch energy very well. And she tells Nellie
14:27that she has to find somewhere else to work. She also knows that everything has to end and Heathcliff
14:30is stalking her and he overhears that she is pregnant with Edgar's child. And he confronts her about this
14:36where she's like, yeah, it's definitely his, sorry. And they have s*** on a goddamn dining room table.
14:41And the way that they get off is him saying, like, how much he wants to hurt and destroy Edgar.
14:46And then he takes it too far, saying that he's going to drink his blood. And then Catherine's like,
14:50oh, we need to, like, this actually has to end now. This is, like, getting too real for me.
14:55And he's like, this hurt little puppy on the floor. And then he's determined to destroy her.
14:59And so he uses Isabella for this, breaking into her room. And, um, the way that this is done
15:04is effectively, like, her saying that, yeah, she's totally fine with being abused by him.
15:08She's meant to have some sort of twisted sense to her, but it really just was not handled well.
15:12They get married in Scotland, as was done at the time. He doesn't kiss her then,
15:15but he does abuse her. A lot. And she starts writing letters to Nellie, begging her to come
15:20and save her. At Heathcliff's direction, by the way, because he cannot read or write.
15:24And when that doesn't make Catherine do anything, she starts writing to Catherine herself.
15:28And Nellie burns all of the letters that are directed at Catherine.
15:31This situation is eating Nellie up, so she goes to Wuthering Heights to try and bring Isabella
15:35back with her, to see Isabella chain like a dog in the filthy fireplace soot.
15:39Nellie's like, this is sickness, this has to stop. And Heathcliff just laughs, like,
15:43getting the chain, and he's like, what? If she wants to leave, she'll leave.
15:47Begging Isabella to come home with her, and she just grins, and she's like, I am home.
15:51And Cathy this whole time has been pouting and being dramatic. She's like, the baby's gone,
15:55but she hasn't bled, and so Nellie doesn't believe her. And Edgar is getting sick of his wife,
16:00pining after this man, and he's like, this needs to stop. Catherine just keeps getting sicker and
16:04sicker, and Nellie's like, oh, for goodness sake, just get up. And then she rips the bedding off
16:08her, and she sees that her legs are just, like, covered in veins. But Nellie didn't believe her,
16:13because Catherine has been making herself sick for so many years at this point. Not that the movie
16:18tells you that. You have to know this from the book context, because that happens in the book so often.
16:22So it's understandable that Nellie didn't believe her, but now it's all Nellie's fault that she's dying.
16:26Catherine miscarries and passes away, and oh my goodness, Heathcliff finds out, and he comes
16:30galloping across the moors, goes past her husband, and he's like, you don't want to see it. But then
16:36he sees it, and he's just destroyed by it, and this is where we have him pleading, please haunt me,
16:40never leave me, you know, like, all the famous stuff that you already know. And that's where the movie ends,
16:45because why would we want to go to the second half of the book, which actually deals with the
16:48intergenerational trauma, and the grave digging stuff, and all the other haunting things about it.
16:55Like, so many adaptations only cover, like, to this part of the book anyway, so are we all that
17:01surprised? No. So you see how this is not at all this? I'm positive that Dominic Noble will do a
17:07video on this, and I'll have his channel linked for you down below. I don't know when he'll come
17:11up with the video, but I'm certain that he will. He does a great job at comparing the movie to
17:14the
17:14book, and yeah, it's really good. And now you understand why I'm saying it's a self-insert fanfic.
17:19I also just heard her say in an interview about, oh, maybe there's a Wuthering Heights too. Please
17:24no. Emerald has many talents, and the movie is beautiful, but this is not a story that she
17:29should have told if her only lens can really be from a white 14-year-old's perspective. She should
17:34never have called this Wuthering Heights. She should have given it a totally different title,
17:37maybe one of the many which I provided her with earlier. Cast teenagers to early 20-year-olds in
17:42these roles. And put it out on Netflix, because I can guarantee you the teens and the young adults
17:47would love it. There have been many terrible fanfiction adaptations which are well beloved
17:51by people. The expectations were set for this movie because of the uncreative title, so it's
17:56understandably left people feeling like, you have been weighed, you have been measured, and you
18:01absolutely have been found wanting. And I know that Emerald can do better. Emerald also says that these
18:08are the movies that inspired her, and seriously, go watch them instead. But some of them I was very
18:14surprised to make it onto the list. Genuinely. I wouldn't go recommending this one, for example.
18:20My life has been bitter since I last heard your voice. I kept going only for you.
18:26Race plays a critical role in Wuthering Heights, as anybody who has read the story except for Emerald
18:30Vennel will be able to tell you. And so many retellings of Wuthering Heights have happened over
18:34the years and in the movies, except for one Heathcliff is played by a white man. And it actually caused
18:40a major
18:40stir in 2011 including this piece from The Guardian because people were shocked to see a black person,
18:46like, diversity happening in the cast. People grappling with seeing people on colour on screen
18:51in traditional settings. Oh no, we can only have white people. Dear, we're still stuck in that
18:54conversation today with some people, aren't we? In the 2011 version, they also cast Kea, who is
18:59famous as Effie from Skins. And so for me it makes sense casting her as that because I grew up
19:04seeing
19:04her as that broken wild child on the show. In terms of the plot, Heathcliff's race and othering
19:09is a key part as to why these two lovers cannot be together. To diminish that is to erase a
19:14key
19:15component of Emily Bronte's work and her critique on the world. Yet another descriptor for Heathcliff's
19:20appearance is, dark, almost as if he came from the devil, by Nelly, a little Lascar or an American
19:25or Spanish castaway. At the time, Lascar was a term used for Indian and Southeast Asian sailors,
19:30and sometimes their children. Employed or trafficked by the East India Company, being labelled a castaway
19:35from the Americas or Spain, including the Caribbean, only reinforces the idea that Heathcliff is not
19:39meant to be read as a white English boy. And as Floridian Florence says in this reel,
19:43On the other hand, the Lintons represented high-class white British society for upholding
19:47this system of racism. Heathcliff even said he wished he had the fair skin, blonde hair,
19:51and blue eyes of Edgar Linton. As a Romani person, I'm not surprised Heathcliff was whitewashed.
19:56And we've had entire shows about living and breathing Romani families without a single Romani actor.
20:00This just points to a wider systemic problem. Even in 2025, only 8% of show creators were people of
20:05color.
20:06Creators of color need to be given equal opportunities as well.
20:09It is so irresponsible to tell this story with a white Heathcliff in this big year of 2026.
20:15Like, sure, we can just bring class into the discussion, but the rich man, poor man story
20:19has been told so very many times. I'm a fan of it, but that is not just what Wuthering Heights
20:24is.
20:24And Princess Weeks is not one, but two fantastic videos I'm gonna have linked for you down below on this.
20:29Because there is the whole issue of tall, dark, and racially ambiguous.
20:32The tall, dark, and handsome label can mean an utter myriad of things depending on who you're talking to.
20:37Like me growing up, for example, I thought tall, dark, and handsome meant a white man with the tan and
20:42dark hair.
20:43Maybe brown eyes.
20:44Because that was what I grew up hearing either from, like, family members or from TV shows.
20:49They were also probably referencing Italians, and I know that people are gonna say,
20:52well, they weren't considered to be white, just like Irish people weren't considered to be white.
20:56Once again, go to Princess Weeks' video.
20:58A patron also shared their experience growing up in the UK from their mother and grandmother's perspective.
21:03John Willoughby from 1994's Sense and Sensibility and Edward Rondchester from 1997's Jane Eyre,
21:09they would count as tall, dark, and handsome.
21:11In Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Marilyn's character says this.
21:14If they're tall, dark, and handsome, she never gets around to vital statistics.
21:18And who is it that Dorothy ends up with?
21:20A white man with blue eyes and dark hair.
21:22And she's also in this room that is filled with men who are her ideal,
21:26tall, dark, and handsome men who are all white men with brown or black hair.
21:31Honestly, get it, girl. I like Dorothy.
21:33The chaperone's job is to see that nobody else has any fun.
21:37But nobody chaperones to chaperone.
21:39But Dorothy.
21:40That's why I'm so ripe for this job.
21:41But there's definitely only white people in this picture.
21:44Even Angel from Buffy is referred to as such.
21:47Who is this hunk of tall, dark, and handsome?
21:50Just a friend.
21:51And it's also been typically contrasted to the classic English rose.
21:54Like, you know how pale I am, for example?
21:57That's because of my recessive genes, which just mean that I spend more at the doctor.
22:00But it's always used as a way of, like, marking her as this fair maiden.
22:04And it emphasizes the fact that she's Anglo-Saxon,
22:06which, you know, the whole genes issue, as I've spoken about before,
22:11there's a lot of white supremacy linked in there.
22:13Typically when white people are talking in white circles about who they're dating,
22:17if they say tall, dark, and handsome, they still mean someone that's white.
22:19Because if they mean someone that's black, Indian, Polynesian, or whatever,
22:24they will actually just say that straight up.
22:26Because dark just means a deeper skin tone, whereas it's a whole other separate category.
22:31Okay?
22:31Like, this is, again, why I keep on recommending those Princess Weeks videos for you.
22:36I'm just sharing, like, what I've experienced any time that I'm in, like, a purely white circle.
22:41And the thing is that the town I grew up in the UK was a very multicultural town.
22:44The problem is, because of white supremacy, white is still seen as the default.
22:49And if a white woman is interested in a man,
22:51well, he should be a white man because of the whole race mixing being a terrible thing,
22:56and, like, all of the other eugenics white supremacy stuff that I've talked about many times on my channel.
23:02And let's be honest, white supremacy never left the UK, it's only got a more violent now.
23:08We are seeing people be racially profiled and rounded up on US streets at the moment.
23:13Ice has always been bad, as some more news has indeed talked about,
23:16but this is on a scale that has not been seen in many decades.
23:19To ignore the racial aspect of worldbuilding is to be completely separated from that world entirely,
23:24which maybe is why someone as rich and privileged as Emerald Fennell just couldn't tap into this.
23:29What was also bothering me about this movie is why are the people of colour in the helping position
23:33to the two main characters who are in this tumultuous love affair who just end up hurting the people of
23:39colour?
23:39Nellie is played by Hong Chao and is often abused by Catherine and gets abused by other staff too.
23:45She does lash out in ways that she can, like burning up the letters,
23:48but she's the one that's trying to patch things up, especially for poor Isabella,
23:52who is also a victim in this toxic, twisted thing.
23:55It is completely understandable for Nellie to totally tire of this bratty, self-centred white woman
24:00who has all the riches in the world, who has everything in the world.
24:03It makes sense that she'd be done with her shit and yet she's the one who let Cathy down
24:07and is the reason that she dies.
24:09I think it's great that we've got a morally grey, complex character here
24:12and I did really enjoy the way that she acted in it.
24:15She displays Heathcliff's struggles better than Jacob Elordi ever could
24:19and Goodlinton in this version is played by Shehzad Lateef.
24:22Who would high key make a fantastic Heathcliff?
24:24Or the other fan favourite is Dev Patel, but I can only ever remember him from seeing him in Skins
24:30because that show really did have such a grip on me as a teenager.
24:34He's seventh heaven.
24:36Sorry, I've got to call him.
24:39But I can see why people say that he would make a great Heathcliff.
24:41Shehzad Lateef is a Pakistani, Scottish and English descent
24:44and Linton in the book is specifically meant to be the rich, white, blonde nobleman.
24:49So colorblind casting here just screws everything up about the story.
24:53He gets mistreated so badly by Cathy and I couldn't help but feel like we were just falling into the
24:58trope
24:58of the Asian man not ever being able to be seen as desirable once again
25:02and him being taken advantage of by a white woman again.
25:06You know, and he's just meant to stay super nice and he's so nice and helpful and everything.
25:11Like, I just felt terrible for him the whole time.
25:15Colorblind casting can work in some cases, but in a story like Wuthering Heights it just can't.
25:20And to be honest with you, Bridgerton falls into this trap as well.
25:22Since two of the main families are white, it means that a lot of the diversity has to be added
25:27in
25:27through love interests who can get discarded or like just shoved to the side or exotified.
25:33Colorblind casting can work, for example, how Whitney Houston did this
25:36when it comes to the version of Cinderella starring Brandy.
25:39I really like that version by the way.
25:41You got a problem with that?
25:42Character's race doesn't play a major part in that story at all,
25:45but it did give her daughter someone to be able to look up to and see in a princess role.
25:50There are so few roles in classic literature that actually centre the lived experience of a
25:54person of colour or a Romani person.
25:56To have this sort of approach that's been employed here is not only irresponsible, but it's cruel.
26:00We're at a time where we're dealing with out and proud white supremacists.
26:04People are unashamedly fretting about the great replacement theory.
26:07And for the story for the person of colour to be a cuck to the white man who she's meant
26:11to be with,
26:12who she has this great love with, is really not sending a good message.
26:16I'm not saying that's Emerald's intention at all with this.
26:18I don't even think it even crossed her mind.
26:21And that's part of the problem.
26:22And the thing is that we've known how big this movie is going to be since its release.
26:26With great power comes great responsibility, as Uncle Ben did teach us.
26:30But Emerald is the one who wrote and directed this.
26:32A girl who grew up rich and said that boarding schools stopped her from going off the rails.
26:37Who went to Marlborough College, not the cigarettes,
26:39but the same place that Diana Spencer actually went to.
26:42She is part of the upper echelon.
26:44Her father has designed jewellery for Madonna and Elton John.
26:47It's also why Saltburn missed the mark for so many people,
26:49because the class critique wasn't really there except towards middle class people
26:55who were trying to gain momentum and go upper.
26:59So, yeah.
27:00You can still enjoy the work.
27:02You can still enjoy the movies.
27:03It's just, like, she isn't able to do the class critique because she's part of the higher class.
27:09The worst thing that the rich people do in that movie is really just ambivalence,
27:13ignorance the rest of the time.
27:15They're even downright polite.
27:16So it kind of makes sense to me why she's not engaged with the work.
27:19And this story wound up being rich man versus poor man vibes,
27:22but with a more unhinged edge.
27:24All I could do was make a movie that made me feel the way the book made me feel,
27:27and therefore it just felt right to say it's Wuthering Heights, and it isn't.
27:31It certainly isn't Wuthering Heights.
27:37There are definitely parts of this movie that I really enjoyed.
27:39I know that so many people hate the costumes, but seriously, the designer, Jacqueline Duran,
27:44she designed the costumes for the Barbie movie.
27:46She designed Keira Knightley's dresses in Anna Karenina, which I know at the time were hated,
27:51but I do feel like some of the pieces that are made for this are actually so beautiful.
27:57And I know that this dress in particular got so much hate,
28:00but the whole point was that Kathy was imagining herself as, like,
28:04having to wrap herself up as a gift for Linton, you know, on their wedding night.
28:07That's the whole point of it, and it was inspired by this picture.
28:10I totally get it, and the thing is that you know that I'm a trash panda, right?
28:14Like, all of my stuff, nearly all of it, is secondhand.
28:17And I grew up in the 90s and 2000s, and so iridescent kind of fabric has a chokehold on me,
28:22so I'm sure that people are going to be like, oh, it's polyester heights or whatever,
28:25and it's like, that's fine.
28:26I really liked the high shine fabrics, and I really liked some of these pieces.
28:31But in terms of the movie as a whole, I think that you can tell,
28:35even though the score I really enjoyed, I really enjoyed Charlie XCX's music in it as well.
28:41I think visually it is stunning.
28:43I can see what this could have been if only Emerald had collaborated more and brought in diverse voices.
28:49She's definitely talented, and I believe that she should still absolutely be working,
28:53but I just want her to have a broader circle.
28:56Otherwise we're just going to continue to get this stale, rich, white woman approach to movies.
29:01When I believe that she's capable of greatness, she wanted this movie to be the new Titanic,
29:06and I don't really think it's there.
29:08As someone that does really enjoy Titanic.
29:11By not expanding her horizons and challenging herself,
29:14she's only going to continue to appeal to a small subset of white women.
29:18But maybe she doesn't care, and maybe that's part of the problem.
29:21With this film she gave us a visual feast, but I left hungry.
29:25I would love to see a Wuthering Heights miniseries be made,
29:27where it's actually told by Romani people or people of colour.
29:31Genuinely, I think that that would be so very good, especially today.
29:34As one of my patrons said, the really good thing about this film is that so many more people
29:38are now discovering the work of Emily Bronte, and so they want to read the book themselves.
29:42And so I'm like, that's great, fantastic.
29:45You're in for a dark time, but it's also a very important piece of literary work.
29:49Wuthering Heights has inspired so many movies and fanfiction about it.
29:53It was the inspiration behind Twilight's Breaking Dawn after-series, which is terrible, yes,
29:58but it was inspired by greatness.
30:00And we also have this great Kate Bush banger, right?
30:02And if you loved this movie, I'm very happy for you.
30:05It's just not Wuthering Heights.
30:07That's the real kicker, you know?
30:10If the core themes were there, then I could get behind it.
30:13Like I said, I really did want to like this, but oh well, here we are.
30:17And now you've got a video from it, and Emerald is going to keep on producing whatever she wants to
30:22produce.
30:22I made it all the way to the end of this video.
30:24Maybe like the wind emoji, or is there a fog emoji, or like hills or something?
30:29Um, because you know, it's all about the moors.
30:31Like that's a character in this, and I think that she captured that well in the film.
30:35That's the thing.
30:36It was so beautiful.
30:38Ugh, if only like there was substance, you know?
30:41That was, I just, that's why I'm saying I left hungry.
30:43Thank you very, very much for making it all the way to the end of this video.
30:45And thanks again to my patrons, because they do shape what you see before you,
30:48and I've been chatting to them about this, and I was trying to plan the video out.
30:52I had a whole other idea, and then the movie came out.
30:55And I'm like, oh, this no longer works.
30:57And an extra special thank you to all of my top tier Trash Panda enablers.
31:00Alyssa, Anna, Anna Marie, Back to Fly, Be in a Jar,
31:03Birgit, Buttmunch McGee, Caroline and Violet, Carrie, Danielle, Dr. Worm, Dr. Bunn, Elise,
31:08Emily McCulley, Jane, Jess, Katie Fukuhara, Christine Wine, Laura Bell, Mark Tremonti is God,
31:14Mary Sweet, Megan Connolly, Monica Jensen, Natalie R, Nathan, Nick neither nor, Nicole H, Pink is Life,
31:19Queen Winters B, Rachel Brasi, Ryder, Sheriff Truman, Snetty, Spooky Jade, Tammy Poitras,
31:24Patricia McKinney, Tonya Beignet, Verroux Catmama and Sofima.
31:27So now I've told you all of my thoughts on the movie.
31:29Did you enjoy it?
31:30Did you enjoy the book if you've read it?
31:32Uh, or were you like me at the age of like 19, 20,
31:35looking for like this epic romance and then you left deeply disturbed by it
31:38because it is a highly disturbing book?
31:40It's good, I'm not saying it's not, I'm just saying like,
31:43um, I was looking for sweeping romance, not necrophilia.
31:49Okay, anyway, I'll see you all next time, bye bye.
31:52Nobody told me that my lash was lifted, however long that was up there for,
31:57I am so sorry, that is so embarrassing, oh my goodness.
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