The Personal History of David Copperfield was written and directed by Armando Iannucci and released in 2019. The film is an adaptation of "David Copperfield" a book by Charles Dickens, the world renowned 19th century writer. It follows the titular character David Copperfield, from his childhood to his adulthood. It tackles themes of found family, classism and coming of age.

The film excels in it's stylistic methods of storytelling. The non-diegetic projections that gave context to certain scenes stick out to me the most. It's also funny, in a very heart-warming way. The stakes aren't high and that's what grounds the film so much in reality. It's a very human story. The exploration of class was interesting, as with each chapter of David's life, he picked up valuable life lessons along the way, as well as a new name. There are times throughout the story, where characters announce to Davis that they are going to address him by something that isn't his name. Whether it be "Trotwood", "Daisy" or "Doddy", David's name is under threat on a somewhat consistent basis. By the end of the film David reclaims his name and cements his own identity. If he had spent enough time with those people who threatened his sense of self, he would have become a different person. Dev Patel who plays Copperfield said this about the character: "David is sort of an observer. He’s a writer, and it’s a story about a young man, taking all these larger-than-life, colourful characters and putting them into his work, which leads to success. You know: owning his past, where he came from, and embracing that." David chooses to almost compartmentalize the tragic moments of his life by putting them into writing. His entire life of writing down quotes from important figures finally culminates in his story. Yet we also get the sense that he is an unreliable narrator. The film as we, the audience watch it, is being told by David in a theatre. We know that he tried to add Dora Spenlow into the climactic scene in which Uriah is outed as a criminal, and only backtracks when Dora herself realises that she doesn't belong in his story. This he admits to the audience, but it draws attention to David's reliability, which is to be somewhat expected, as he was recalling memories from his childhood
The choice to double cast Morfydd Clark as both David's mother and lover was interesting. It raises some Freudian questions...

Colour-blind casting was used in this film. There are families that would never make sense ethnically, yet it isn't distracting because the performances make the relationships convincing. 19th century England is also presented as having a much more diverse population than it would have at the time in the real world. Iannucci said: “I hope it encourages [other] casting directors, other producers, other directors, to feel it doesn’t have to be this way. Hopefully it [becomes] a subconscious thing of people automatically thinking, I mustn’t categorize this role to any particular ethnic background. I say, ‘Why can’t I cast from 100 percent of the acting talent available to me?’ … It can’t be the case that a whole group of amazing actors are prevented from having lead roles, because the whole point of making these films now is because we feel the story is relevant, and we should show that it’s relevant by how we go about making it.” This is a very insightful approach to storytelling. It raises questions similar to "Should men play women" and vice versa.