A visually stunning queer fairytale overflowing with style, '100 Nights a Hero' dazzles the eye but falters in its storytelling ambition.
100 Nights a Hero is a feminist retelling of One Thousand and One Nights, turning the fairytale into a campy rom-com. Based on a graphic novel of the same name by British illustrator and author Isabel Greenberg, the film is a colourful fable about a doomed marriage and the circular nature of storytelling.
Set in a pastel Medieval land, 100 Nights a Hero follows doomed bride Cherry (Maika Monroe) and her dislikable husband Jerome (Amir El-Masry), as they struggle to become intimate and consummate their marriage. They have 101 nights to procure proof of pregnancy, or Cherry’s head is on the line. Unhelpfully, Jerome has to go away, leaving his wife in the care of scumbag friend Manfred (Nicholas Galitzine). Jerome, proving his sleazeball status, bets his castle and his wife that Manfred won’t be able to seduce Cherry within the 100 nights.
Cherry’s devoted maid Hero (Emma Corrin) spots potential danger in the overly charming Manfred and weaves a bedtime story to keep them from being alone together. This tale is a soothing yet pointed yarn about a group of sisters who are trained for marriage but harbour a forbidden secret. When Rosa (a distracting and miscast Charli XCX) is married off, she accidentally lets slip that the trip knows how to read and write.
100 Nights A Hero places women as the heroes of the fairytale, letting them take back control of their own mythology. The story satirically plays with classic tropes, using the princess, the maid, and the handsome prince stereotypes to turn the fairy tales we all grew up on their heads. This film has all the ingredients of a classic fairytale, only this time the women are aware of the limitations imposed on them by the patriarchy.
The film can’t wait to point out the parallels between Hero and Cherry, and the heroines of their bedtime story. The film might have benefitted from being less in your face with its messaging and letting the audience read between the lines a little more. The story is very clearly about rebel women educating themselves enough to understand their position in life; it doesn’t need to so heavily explain why the shackles are bad and signpost the games the men are playing.
Monroe’s Cherry is a robotic wife desperate for the switch to be flipped so she can break free. She sits straight in her exaggerated leg-of-mutton sleeves and constraining feather neckpiece. Corrin’s Hero is more down to Earth, with knowing blue eyes and a soothing voice perfect to send a man to sleep before he can cause late-night problems. Both have a simmering chemistry together, with lingering stares over banquet tables. Galitzine’s uncharming man reuses his sleazy Himbo energy from 2023’s Bottoms, never fooling audiences into thinking he is anything less than a sleazeball.
At just 90 minutes long, 100 Nights a Hero tries to cram too many threads into its diminutive runtime. There is the main, slightly convoluted tale of the husband’s bet, the romantic tension between Hero and Cherry, and her fate if she does not get pregnant. Then the film adds another layer with scenes depicting Hero’s bedtime story, interrupting the flow of the main tale. These scenes weren’t necessary, and the film may have benefited from solely showing Hero reading the story without acting it out scene by scene.
The final act gets especially tangled up in itself, trying to make another point about the benefits of storytelling and the importance of passing on myths. There are too many messages, characters, and influences that it overcomplicates the queer, feminist twist on fables. A last act tangent teases for a fourth act shock before the film ends on a strangely vague note.
100 Nights A Hero is a gorgeous but empty tale. It’s more of a whimsical fashion editorial movie than a feature film. It takes place in an alternative Medieval world that blends ancient textures with modern accents, all shot through a pastel kaleidoscope. Think Poor Things meets Marie Antoinette meets The Story Of Joan of Arc. It makes the film feel like it’s set in a fantastical universe, effortlessly blending reality and fantasy.
Every frame is the best-looking thing you’ve seen this year; every detail from the set to the costumes to the lighting is sublime. Production designer Sofia Sacomani, art director Naomi Bailey, costume designer Susie Coulthard, and set decorator Tatyana Jinto Rutherston are doing the heavy lifting here. The film is so aesthetically pleasing that it mostly distracts from its weaker storytelling elements.
Through it flaws, Jackson has admirable filmmaking ambition. It’s a shame 100 Nights a Hero doesn’t quite have the script to match the intended grandeur. It’s clear the director has an eye for creating a good-looking film and the smarts to make a feminist twist on a well-worn formula. All the pieces work separately, but together don’t quite form a complete picture.
Julia Jackman’s historical fantasy 100 Nights of Hero is an aesthetically pleasing queer feminist fairytale, but does it have much to say beneath the pastel veneer? Probably not as much as it thinks it does.
Rating: C
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100 Nights of Hero
When a charming house guest arrives at a remote castle, the delicate dynamic between a neglectful husband, his innocent bride Cherry and their devoted maid Hero is thrown into chaos.
Release Date: December 5, 2025
Director: Julia Jackman
Cast: Emma Corrin , Maika Monroe , Nicholas Galitzine
