100 Nights of Hero: LFF Film Review
After spending two weeks watching a lot of sad and depressing films, it made a nice change to close out the London Film Festival 2025 with the weird and wonderful romp 100 Nights of Hero.
Set in a fairy tale kingdom and patriarchal society, Cherry (Maika Monroe) and her husband Jerome (Amir El-Masry) are ordered to conceive within 101 days or she faces execution. Jerome flees the kingdom on a business trip, confident that Cherry won’t be seduced by his handsome friend Manfred (Nicholas Galitzine), who is staying as a guest in their stately home. To help her stay faithful to her husband, Cherry’s maid and best friend Hero (Emma Corrin) tells stories about rebellious women who break the rules of society whenever Manfred tries his luck.
Julia Jackman‘s 100 Nights of Hero, based on the 2016 graphic novel of the same name by Isabel Greenberg, is wacky, camp, queer and absolutely bonkers. It’s tonally all over the place, a lot is going on, and it shouldn’t be taken too seriously. I had a lot of fun with it, particularly in the first half, when the laughs are more consistent and frequent.
I never cared about the story or the characters but I did enjoy the sound, the visuals and how bizarre it all was. Unfortunately, I became less and less interested in it as it went along, partially because the story never fully engaged me and because the novelty wore off and it stopped being so funny. I also struggled to care about Hero’s story – which is brought to life on screen with Charli XCX‘s Rosa as the main character.
The star-studded cast seem to be having a blast with the oddball material. Galitzine, in particular, sends up the classic Prince Charming type and throws himself into looking rather silly (like in Bottoms), while Monroe and Corrin roll their eyes at him and play it straighter, although some reaction shots from Corrin are hilarious.
100 Nights of Hero is probably going to be quite a divisive one. It’s not completely my cup of tea but I appreciate the ambition, absurdity and the commitment from the game cast.
Closed the London Film Festival. In cinemas in 2026