Nothing Like a Dame (film) declaring it an "outrageously funny film". Guy Lodge of "Variety" called the film a "richly enjoyable gabfest" but that the film was "hardly vital cinema". Both Bradshaw and Lodge noted that they wish the film went through a more wide range of topics such as Time's Up and the Me Too movements. Nothing Like a Dame (film) Nothing Like a Dame (released in the United States as Tea With the Dames) is a 2018 documentary film directed by Roger Michell. The film documents conversations between actresses Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright and Maggie Smith interspersed with scenes from their
Emma Thompson specialises in playing "a good woman in a frock". She also plays many haughty characters, with a "bracing, nanny-like demeanour", but she is noted for her ability to win the empathy of audiences. Thompson belongs to a group of highly decorated British actresses including Judi Dench, Kate Winslet and Helena Bonham Carter who are known for appearing in "heritage films" and typically showing "restraint, rendering emotions through intellect rather than feelings, and a sense of irony, which demonstrates the heroine's superior understanding". Projecting a typically "British image", Thompson's often dogmatic and tight-jawed manner has also been compared to Maggie Smith.