To be clear, this infatuation is not of a sexual nature, but more a matter of becoming so overwhelmed by the strength of someone's charisma that you almost have to look away in embarrassment.
And because I've never actually tagged Brown on my blog before (perhaps motivated by shame in that regard) and because Brown has a new movie out, I thought it was time to delve into this crush that would make me stammer like a fool if I ever met her in person.
I can remember the exact moment when I realized the power of Millie Bobby Brown.
For the first few seasons of Strangers Things I had been sort of poo-pooing other people's declarations of her greatness. To me, she was just a kid with a shaved head who scowled a lot. And if this marks me as a person who isn't naturally struck by the good looks of a woman with a shaved head, so be it. What I loved about Sinead O'Connor back in the day wasn't her appearance either, though I have no doubt it would have been if she had played the conventional music industry game and tried to make herself as pretty as possible. (But then, you will agree, she wouldn't have been Sinead.)
But then during season 3 of Stranger Things, Eleven finally grows her hair out and blossoms into something she was not before. I remember very specifically this conversation she has with Finn Wolfhard's Mike when they are both sitting in a mall. For the first time she struck me as traditionally vulnerable rather than just a simmering powder keg about to explode, and for the first time she smiled. (Look, I didn't say these series of confessions were going to make me look very good.)
(Oops, and another thing that isn't so great: Brown was not 18 in Stranger Things season 3. She was more like 15. I thought she was 22 right now, but it turns out she's only 20. What are you going to do. I'm not trying to find her to ask her out on a date or anything.)
Anyway, I remember melting when she brandished that smile at Mike. I was going to say literally, but that's not the case. And I have been a puddle in Brown's presence ever since.
Here, just let me show you how I've written about her in her four films I've reviewed since then.
From my Enola Holmes review. Careful with this one, I do go on and on:
Millie Bobby Brown has been earning raves since the earliest days of Stranger Things, where she plays the telekinetic teenager known as Eleven. If there was anyone who didn’t immediately recognise her star power, that could be because she spent those early days looking at the world with timid doe eyes, broken up by occasional eruptions of rage. By the third season she really started smiling, at which point, her charisma manifested as a physical force that radiated off her for all to see, and few to resist.
And a bit later in the same review:
By giving us a light diversion that is purposeful about its sense of fun, Netflix has now weaponised Brown’s charisma. When she turns to the audience to break the fourth wall with a conspiratorial glance, you are practically inclined to blush.
And:
The movie around Brown is quite enjoyable, but could probably never equal the special talents she brings to the table.
And as if that weren't enough:
She provides something for everyone in this role, dressing as boys on several occasions to more closely approximate the head-shaven, asexual mode in which we first met her in Stranger Things, but she also spends time in corsets and other Victorian garb, with the flowing locks to match. In all modes she has spunk and joie de vivre to spare.
Okay finally moving to Enola Holmes 2, where I do rein myself in a bit, but only a bit. And sorry for the some of the out-of-context excerpts:
Surely that’s enough time for us to appreciate all the different charming facial expressions Millie Bobby Brown is increasingly capable of making.
And:
The Netflix-style excessive length (this being a product of Netflix after all) draws attention to how much narrative filler there is when we’re not watching Brown’s face. She’s on screen for most of the movie, so there’s a lot of face watching, but this film’s writer (Jack Thorne) and director (Harry Bradbeer), both reprising from the original, confuse our interest in their charismatic star with a genuine interest in unravelling the mystery.
And look how self-conscious I was that you were onto me, even though I was relatively restrained in my praise of Brown in this one:
A lot of the credit for that energy goes to Brown, who has already received her share of praise in this review.
I even doffed my cap to her charisma in Godzilla vs. Kong, a film I otherwise disliked, though fortunately, this was her only mention in the review outside of a first reference to her playing her character:
And while there’s a lot Millie Bobby Brown can do (and to a lesser extent, an under-utilised Kyle Chandler), she can’t through sheer force of charisma turn this into something more than a smash-em-up with bad dialogue.
Then this week I was back in raving form with my review of Damsel:
But Brown is such a good actress and compelling presence that she doesn’t need to make this character an ass-kicking badass. In fact, from the number of times Brown cries out in real agony from a gory injury, we are reminded that women can be strong and still be real(ish) people.
And:
There are plenty of standard components in Damsel, but the production has found an actress who can make these components feel somewhat fresh. The impossibly charismatic star of Stranger Things continues her relationship with Netflix in a manner that requires different things from her than the plucky heroine of the Enola Holmes series. This material is darker and more in sync with Stranger Things, and Brown is equal to it. The fall into this pit, slowed only by the gnarled branches that allow her to reach the ground in one piece, has left her with suppurating wounds and a stew of rage and fear. Brown has all the gifts in her repertoire to give her character a sense of real struggle and probable defeat.
And finally:
If Damsel is getting a slightly higher rating from me than it possibly deserves, that’s probably due to Brown, who is on screen almost throughout this film. Great movie stars have the power to take middling material and thrust it upward through sheer force of will, and Millie Bobby Brown is a great movie star.
At least this time I am more praising her acting skills and less obviously infatuated with her? Maybe?
The thing is, I don't love love her like I sit there day-dreaming about what it would be like if I were 30 years younger and happened to work in the movie business, meaning I might actually rub elbows with her. I do find her attractive, obviously (she's 20 so it's okay if I say it), but there are a million attractive people in Hollywood of both genders and I don't fixate on most of them the way it feels like I've fixated on Brown. (And thank goodness most people wouldn't have been reading the above reviews in conjunction with one another -- that is, before I conveniently cobbled them together in the same post as I have done here.)
No, there are two things about Brown that really get me:
1) Her eyes. They penetrate right through you.
2) Her charisma, you won't be surprised to learn as that word has already appeared in this post about 17 times. Especially in Enola Holmes, it became clear just what a variety of charming facial expressions she was capable of making, all of which speak to the inner fire of her personality.
There I go again.
I do think it's time for me to pump the brakes a bit on all this, though, and let's call my blog a bit of my own personal confessional, where I tell you things in order for them to stop having such a hold over me and to make them less shameful.
I think here about how a critic, probably especially a male critic, has to be careful how they write about an actress, which I think is something I've discussed before (though I don't remember when so I can't search for it among my more than 3,000 posts). I think about how the New Yorker's Anthony Lane got in trouble for sexualizing Elastagirl in his review of The Incredibles 2, which I always have in the back of my mind any time I'm trying to convey that an actress or a female movie character has that certain something. Words like "beguiling" and "incandescent" and "effervescent" might make their way into such a review, though it appears I have not used any of these three words in connection with Millie Bobby Brown.
So what am I trying to do in this post?
I don't know, just maybe it's my way of trying to tell myself not to be so head over heels for this woman (yes, she's a woman not a girl) the next time I review a movie of hers, which seems likely not to be until 2025 as her four future credits on IMDB include only one film that is in post-production, while the others are all in earlier stages.
I've told the world I find her darling enough times, and even once is probably superfluous when it's something they can so plainly see with their own eyes.
*Note after publishing: I think it's funny that I devote as much mental energy to this person as I do and yet I can never remember if it is Milly Bobbie Brown or Millie Bobby Brown. I've fixed it so it is both consistent and correct now, I believe.
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