Are pen pals still a thing in the age of internet trolls and other online dangers? I’m not sure if they are, but that’s the premise of the new movie Dear Dictator. Odeya Rush plays Tatiana, a teenage girl who’s always on the edges of the social dynamic at her school. One day she decides to start writing letters to a British-Caribbean dictator named General Anton Vincent (Michael Caine), who is in the news because of the atrocities being committed in his country.
When Vincent is forced to flee a coup he winds up looking for and finding Tatiana and teaching her how to rule her school with an iron fist, taking down the mean girls and other bullies that have plagued her existence for too long. Of course not everyone is cool with this situation and things quickly escalate as Vincent’s presence in the suburbs is no longer concealable and has to be dealt with.
Cinematic Slant 