In her directorial debut, Piper announces herself as a truly thrilling film-maker with this bleakly brilliant inversion of the cutesy
London love story
Romcoms are about love and they want to be loved. Billie Piper’s anti-romcom is about something else – and it wants something else.
Rare Beasts is a bold experiment in nerve-jangling confrontation: it has the structure and ingredients of romantic
comedy but turns everything on its head. On paper, it could be made by Richard Curtis: there are attractive views of London, an awful date in a restaurant, bittersweet scenes with parents, reflective moments by the river, a Bridget Jones-y media
Job, a glamorous wedding scene and even a cameo for Lily James. But everything goes wrong. Billie Piper’s movie refuses to read the room; it ignores the traditional cues for comedy and gentleness and the learning of life lessons. It is on a spectrum of its own.