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Bleak and at times harrowing modern-day kitchen sink drama that certainly pulls no punches in it's depiction of life at the lower end of the social scale. The film is centred around the lives of two youngsters in the North of England that have no positive role models and not a lot to look forward to unless they can find a way to break out of the poverty trap that thus far is all they've known.
The two young leads both acquit themselves very, very well, Conner Chapman as Arbor having the more expansive and demanding role of the two, but they are not alone as the older members of the cast also generally fill their roles well with the performance from Steve Evets as the father of the other youngster, Swifty, standing out for me even though his character doesn't have that much screen time. For those not well attuned to the accents (of which I include myself) some of the script is difficult to make out at times but the intentions and gist are always pretty clear so it really doesn't present much of a problem imo.
The dearth of likeable characters, albeit fitting for the story, and alien milieu (hopefully to most at least) both could have presented problems with becoming invested in the story but I'm pleased to say neither did for me, the few redeeming qualities that were glimpsed in some characters here and there and the boys being victims of their own circumstance was enough to make me care what happened and the social environs though harsh as expected were also fully believable. In fact one of few quibbles I have with proceedings is I didn't think some of the less salubrious characters, most notably Kitten the local scrap dealer, were portrayed menacingly enough at times.
It's not a feel-good movie and in all honesty I'm not sure how often I would want to watch it but I liked it - far more than I expected from the little I knew going in tbh.
The Selfish Giant (2013) - Clio Barnard - +
Bleak and at times harrowing modern-day kitchen sink drama that certainly pulls no punches in it's depiction of life at the lower end of the social scale. The film is centred around the lives of two youngsters in the North of England that have no positive role models and not a lot to look forward to unless they can find a way to break out of the poverty trap that thus far is all they've known.
The two young leads both acquit themselves very, very well, Conner Chapman as Arbor having the more expansive and demanding role of the two, but they are not alone as the older members of the cast also generally fill their roles well with the performance from Steve Evets as the father of the other youngster, Swifty, standing out for me even though his character doesn't have that much screen time. For those not well attuned to the accents (of which I include myself) some of the script is difficult to make out at times but the intentions and gist are always pretty clear so it really doesn't present much of a problem imo.
The dearth of likeable characters, albeit fitting for the story, and alien milieu (hopefully to most at least) both could have presented problems with becoming invested in the story but I'm pleased to say neither did for me, the few redeeming qualities that were glimpsed in some characters here and there and the boys being victims of their own circumstance was enough to make me care what happened and the social environs though harsh as expected were also fully believable. In fact one of few quibbles I have with proceedings is I didn't think some of the less salubrious characters, most notably Kitten the local scrap dealer, were portrayed menacingly enough at times.
It's not a feel-good movie and in all honesty I'm not sure how often I would want to watch it but I liked it - far more than I expected from the little I knew going in tbh.