Jessica Barden

Netflix to bring back dark comedy which will ‘ruin your life’

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The British show hasn’t been on TV in five years

By Jess Battison

Originally premiering in 2017, the British black comedy-drama had just two seasons and was distributed internationally by Netflix. The End of the F***ing World ran until 2019 and followed 17-year-old James who is ‘pretty sure he is a psychopath’ and Alyssa, also 17, the ‘cool and moody new girl and school’. Connecting, she persuades him ‘to embark on a road trip in search of her real father’.

Starring Alex Lawther and Jessica Barden, the series is based on Charles Forsman’s mini-comics which were collected into a book in 2013. Charlie Covell then wrote the TV series following a ‘lost’ short film in 2014.

The show has an impressive 94 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer with a decent 92 percent average audience score to match.

One user wrote: “The end of the f***ing world is kinda the best series I’ve ever watched tbh.”

Another said: “You should watch end of the f***ing world, it’s on Netflix and WILL RUIN UR LIFE /POS.”

You can watch both seasons of The End of the F***ing World on Netflix.

Source: Crime fans beg Netflix to bring back ‘underrated’ dark comedy which will ‘ruin your life’

‘Holler’ Review: Escaping a Life of Scraps

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In Nicole Riegel’s feature debut, Jessica Barden stars as an Ohio teenager who strips buildings of metal to earn cash.

By Ben Kenigsberg | NY Times

Holler begins with Ruth (Jessica Barden), its protagonist, running. She’s racing to drop trash bags into the flatbed of a truck, where her brother, Blaze (Gus Halper), is waiting. They high-tail it from the scene and sell discarded cans to Hark (Austin Amelio), who pays them chump change for metal. Soon, they will graduate to higher-stakes scrap work: stripping deserted buildings of wiring for larger payoffs, with even bigger risks.

The central question of the movie is whether Ruth will summon the courage to run again, to flee her hometown. The director, Nicole Riegel, making her feature debut, shot the film in the section of southern Ohio where she’s from. Riegel has said that Ruth’s story was inspired by her own challenges leaving the area. Even the medium — Super 16-millimeter film, in the era of digital — adds to the ambience of rusting, abandoned machinery.

Ruth has little overt incentive to stick around. She hides an eviction notice under a flower pot. Her mother (Pamela Adlon) is a drug addict in a county jail. But Ruth gets an unexpected — and, to a condescending teacher at her high school, impractical — offer of college admission: Although she had prepared the application, she never submitted it. Blaze did that for her.

The film strikes an unanticipated false note with its ending, which initially seems too easy — a way to avoid resolving conflicts. But despite a parting smile, and the music of Phoebe Bridgers over the credits, the final moments become bleaker upon reflection. The only way to end this story is to abandon it.

 

Source: ‘Holler’ Review: Escaping a Life of Scraps

Jessica Barden: “I need to hear Oasis at maximum volume”

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Jessica Barden, the ‘End Of The F***ing World’ star, on fame, Hollywood and how ‘Champagne Supernova’ got her through lockdown

Jessica Barden was raised a long way from Massachusetts, where her new film Jungleland is set. The Yorkshire-born actor doesn’t share the same accent as her American character Sky, or the same profession either (Sky makes her money dancing in a shady bar), but they do have a lot in common.

“She’s got the hustle in her,” says the 28-year-old over the phone from her home in Los Angeles. “She reminds me of one of those girls who has posters of Marilyn Monroe on her wall. It sounds cheesy, but they want the American dream. From the outside everyone makes fun of those girls, because they seem like a hot mess. But when you get to know them, they’re actually so strong.”

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