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Reviews
Greenland (2020)
Gerry does it again!
Gerry has done it again. This is MOVIE! A rollercoaster ride. Lots of fun. Wish I could have seen it in the cinema. Pure Saturday night thrills.
Watch out for naughty Roy, he's at it again...
Raining Stones (1993)
It's 'Shame-less'!
Having just watched this film, I found the similarities between it and the UK TV Series 'Shameless' amazing. The depiction of the working class as opportunist thieves taking what the can to sell for whatever they can is not a new concept I suspect.
Raining Stones is the most upbeat and funniest of Loach's films which I have seen. When Bob and Tommy steal the sheep from the moors at the beginning of the film I was wetting myself. Then they went to sell the meat in the local pub and I nearly died. That is my local pub, these people really exist. Classic.
The film is also about one man's struggle to maintain his masculinity as a working class male in Britain at a time when there was no work for labourers. The decline of the manufacturing industries has had a massive impact on the working class in Britain and changed the way they can earn a living and provide for their families. Many are forced to live off the state and to be honest, the money wouldn't feed a chicken let alone a family who want to have all of the things which this society says you can have like a communion dress.
The ending is somewhat ambiguous though. Bob borrows the money from a loan shark and when he cannot pay him back, the loan shark attacks his wife and daughter. Bob retaliates by going after him with a spanner (quite appropriate, may as well use it for something) and inadvertently causes his death. His priest tells him not to go to the police. His daughter attends communion in her dress. The end. But what happened? Did he get caught? Did his wife find out? Is Loach advocating killing loan sharks in order to avoid repayment? I'm not sure about the ending but what we grasp from the film is that it is a struggle to exist when you can't find suitable work but try and help yourself but not starting a fight on your first night as a bouncer will you?
Riff-Raff (1991)
Misfits or Misplaced?
Riff Raff is one of Loach's more humorous depictions of working class life. That said it's still not comedy, it a melodrama with political overtones.
What it's really about is the collapse of the working classes due to the Thatcherite policies introduced in the 1980's. The collapse of the power of the trade unions and the incorporation of capitalisation and 'big business'.
These workers are struggling to live below the breadline, working in unsafe conditions and squatting wherever they can.
It's a tragedy of circumstance really but there are moments of romance and humour provided mostly by Ricky Tomlinson. Taking a bath in a show house. Hilarious.
Ladybird Ladybird (1994)
Heart wrenching drama
Ladybird, Ladybird is one of Ken Loach's most dramatic working class drama's. The use of melodrama to put across political points about the oppression of middle-class systems on the working-classes is subtly brilliant.
After watching the film I was very depressed for quite a while.
Although I was obviously traumatised by social services taking not just one but two of Maggie and Jorge's children shortly and immediately after birth, I couldn't decide if it was somehow her own fault. If you leave your four children alone in a hostel and one of them nearly dies in a fire can you really expect to be deemed capable of providing a 'safe' environment for children? Her rage about this judgement of self it seems is immense. She cannot as Jorge suggests 'talk nicely' to anyone. The frustration of her being trapped by her circumstance of class is evident.
That said, I think it was very harsh of social services to condemn the women to be without children for the rest of her life, people can change and with Jorge it seems that she does find a more stable centre but the pain of the loss will never fade.
I hope that the real Maggie and Jorge find peace and are one day reunited with their 'lost' children. The fact that this film has been based on real life makes it even more heartbreaking.
Not the cheeriest of films but one that you should watch at some point in your lifetime and form your own views. It's very thought provoking which is what Loach intends his films to be.
Le doulos (1962)
Gangster film noir in it's finest hour of deconstruction
Themes of trust, betrayal, friendship and masculinity are all dealt with in this story.
Maurice has just been released from prison but does not appear to have learnt anything as he immediately murders his friend Gilbert then goes on to attempt another robbery. His friend Silien attempts to help him stay clean but these attempts are met with animosity on Maurice's part and he even goes as far as to hire a hit-man to kill Silien before he realises that he is a true friend; or is he?
No full answers are ever given which leads the viewer to create their own conclusions.
Jean Pierre Melville has created a wonderful film which has references to the classic American film noir of the 1950's but also creates a wonderfully fresh French example of the deconstruction of the gangster image and masculinity itself.
Jean Paul Belmondo is wonderful, sexy and exiting in his depiction of Silien and Serge Reggiani plays Maurice perfectly by brooding his way through the entire film.
This film is a must see for all fans of the gangster genre. Tarantino has used many of the elements of Melville's work in his own so it will seem really familiar to you if you are a Tarantino fan.
The Family Stone (2005)
Unstable Bizarre Christmas Offering
The Family Stone is this year's latest Christmas Themed offering. Sarah Jessica Parker has left her Manolo Blahniks behind to become the detached and icy Meredith who goes to visit her boyfriend Everetts (Dermot Mulroney) family for the first time over the Christmas holidays. The film begins as a typical family comedy situation with great potential, unfolding similar to the National Lampoon series but it then transforms into something rather more bizarre.
The only member of the family to have previously met Meredith is younger sister Amy (Rachel McAdams) and the event was painful enough for her to plant the seeds of hatred into the rest of the family which compromises of hippie parents Sybil and Kelly (Diane Keaton and Craig T. Nelson), older sister Susannah (Elizabeth Reaser), brother Thad (Tyrone Giordano), his boyfriend Patrick (Brian White) and younger brother Ben (Luke Wilson). The family's frosty reception becomes too much for Meredith so she sends for her sister Julie (Claire Danes). As Julie joins the family, it appears to be love and first sight between Julie and Everett. Over dinner that evening, Meredith becomes confused by Sybil's statement that she wished for gay children and her comments come across as both racist and homophobic so she is ousted from the table and the family itself as Everett finally turns on her. The event is very tense and highlights problems within American society. Meredith runs from the house with only the younger brother, Ben following. He takes her away from the situation to the sanctuary of the local bar where they strike an honest bond. Meanwhile Everett and Julie have decided that they should go and look for their beloved but they meander around town like it's their first date and seem to fall in love. Hang on a minute we thought Everett loved Meredith and wanted to marry her. What's going on? The bond between the two sisters was never established so this leaves us feeling very uneasy about the new union.
The film seems to really loose the plot, literally. We never find out why Meredith is the way she is and doesn't seem capable of emotional bonding. The subplot of the mother's cancer is cringe worthy as this is marketed as a Romantic Comedy - Christmas - Family film. In the end normal order is resumed with the pairing of more equal matches but I ask you would you really pair up with your sister's ex-boyfriend or ex-boyfriends brother? I think not.
Save your money and go and rent out Love Actually, a far superior film.