Funny Cow

Funny Cow is about a stand-up comedienne (Maxine Peake) taking on the men at their own game in the dingy working men’s clubs of the 1970s. It is in one such place in the north of England where she sees the depressive Lenny (Alun Armstrong) up on stage, going through the motions with his dire material, and effectively dying, that inspires her in the first place. 

When she talks to him about his act, he assures her that ‘women aren’t funny’, and suggests she tries singing or stripping instead but it is comedy that she wants to do. Comedy is a release for her from her miserable life. 

From a childhood living with an abusive father (Stephen Graham) through to a dysfunctional marriage to the violent and controlling Bob (Tony Pitts) via a mother (Lindsey Coulson) driven to drink by life.

Finally leaving her husband and taking up with bookshop owner Angus (Paddy Considine), who takes her to see foreign films which fall way outside her comfort zone, turns out to be not that much of a trade up.

Meanwhile she struggles to gain a foothold in the world of the gungy pub carpet. She suffers from terrible nerves when she attends an audition where she is up against a singer (Richard Hawley), a ventriloquist (Vic Reeves) and an Elvis impersonator (John Bishop) with his dog (Bilko).

Eventually she blags her way on to stage when the promoter has little choice when faced with an empty stage. There she finally gains acceptance, and later success, but only by winning round the hostile audience by embracing the 1970's reality of doing racist and homophobic gags, while dealing with the inevitable hecklers.

In the film we see her after her success, then before, then after again in series of Dave Allen like scenes in front of the camera. Scenes that for me distract from the narrative of the film and therefore drag down what was a generally strong film. 

The later scenes seem to show her just as cynical and disillusioned with everything as she was before she became a comedienne. Even being a success doesn’t appear to have brought her any happiness but then she probably never expected it to.

Death of Stalin

Armando Iannucci’s ‘Death of Stalin’, adapted from a graphic novel, shows the aftershocks of Josef Stalin’s (Adrian Mcloughlin) death in 1953 through decidedly British and comedic eyes. Indeed the Central Committee of the Communist Party is portrayed as about as well run as the worst of the worst of British’s Councils back in the 1970s, only more violent.

The film opens before Stalin’s death with the authorities having to restage a piano concerto because Stalin has asked for a recording of it after the fact. So rather than tell Stalin it’s not possible, the producer (Paddy Considine) forces the orchestra and the audience to stay put while they do it all over again. This involves bribing the pianist (Olga Kurylenko) and finding a new conductor, who turns up in his dressing gown.

Then Stalin has the audacity to die which causes chaos. For a start they can’t summon a competent doctor to confirm his death or to ascertain the cause of it because Stalin has imprisoned or executed them all.

Meanwhile the jockeying to succeed him has already begun. Georgi Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor) temporarily and controversially assumes control but he will have to battle to hold onto the leadership as Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi) and Vyacheslav Molotov (Michael Palin) state their cases. While Khrushchev is the semi-decent reformer and tries to take a more measured path to the top job, Molotov would remove anyone who got in his way. His approach is mild though compared with Lavrentiy Beria (Simon Russell Beale), who is the head of the secret police, but he doesn’t have many supporters and is messily executed for treason. 

The only people to say anything good about Stalin, perhaps not surprisingly, are his daughter, Svetlana (Andrea Riseborough) and his hot-headed son, Vasily (Rupert Friend). Things then liven up further when Marshal Zhukov (Jason Isaacs) turns up. Nothing portrays this more as a British spoof that Zhukov who appears to be a Yorkshireman with a very broad accent.

Depending on how good your knowledge of Russian history is it can be difficult to follow everything as the film is more focussed on it’s comedic angle than about walking you through the history. Although it is still informative in this way and appears to be highly accurate. You just might have to hit Wikipedia to fill in the gaps.

Although very well acted, I’m not sure the film is actually that funny and, for me, the history of it is easily the most fascinating aspect. An out and out drama might have been more effective but then would anybody else have watched it.

The Girl With All The Gifts

‘The Girl With All The Gifts’ is adapted from the 2014 best-selling novel by Mike Carey who also had a hand in the screenplay alongside director Colm McCarthy.

The film opens with children being strapped into their chairs and being wheeled under armed military guard to their school classroom. Clearly in the future all truancy problems have been solved.

Well, not quite. What we have here is a futuristic tale that is a slight variant on the currently fashionable zombie film genre. The zombies which inhabit this world have been created by a fungal infection but act pretty much like your stereotypical zombie. e.g. see a human, chase it down and eat it.

However these children appear to be different. They were infected while still in the womb and evolved into a next generation who think more like humans but still have the overpowering desire to eat human flesh. 

The remaining 'real' humans have managed to stay safe from them by using blocking gel to mask the tantalising smell of their own flesh and, of course, by locking the children up while they try and find a way forward.

For Dr Caroline Caldwell (Glenn Close) the way forward is to find a vaccine and that is how Melanie (Sennia Nanua), seemingly the most intelligent of the bunch, eventually ends up strapped to the Dr’s examination table about to be chopped up in the name of science.

The group’s teacher, Helen Justineau (Gemma Arterton) prefers a different approach. She sees enormous potential in working with these children and when the military base where they are housed is overrun by the undead, she is the one who rescues Melanie.

A group of them are now on the run under the command of Sergeant Eddie Parks (Paddy Considine) who would rather just obliterate them all. Melanie repays her teacher’s kindness by helping the group stay safe by distracting the hordes of zombies who lurk in the streets.

Along the way they find out that the fungal infection will eventually move onto a second even more disastrous stage.

The film has an interesting concept but it’s problem is it really struggles to get this across and it’s very difficult to see where they are trying to go with the story. Although clearly it is trying to ask who is being the more humane... the humans or the new breed of zombies?

It also has the usual horror film problem of people doing nonsensical things and getting themselves killed. In this case, a soldier laying down his arms, his armour and his radio. Oops.

It’s not a bad film but I think it could clearly have been better. It’s also best avoided by cat and dog lovers. 

Submarine

Tonight ‘Submarine’ which has been getting some approving write-ups, although it could just be another ‘coming of age’ story and it is Ben Stiller's production company... still we give it ago.

Fifteen year old Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts), with his Paddington Bear duffle coat, is probably the sort of kid you tried to avoid at school. He’s a bit of a loner and consequentially, a magnet for bulling. He’s also a bit of a fantasist and the film opens with him imagining the national outpouring of grief should he die. Well in Wales anyway, which is where this story is set. Still, it’s unlikely.

The story is narrated by Oliver himself and he talks us through what is a well observed insight into the ‘hell’ of teenage life in a time before computers, mobile phones and social networking. To everyone's surprise and particularly his own, a female classmate takes an interest in him. Jordana Bevan (Yasmin Paige) is (slightly) more worldly wise than Oliver but equally as quirky, only in different ways, and comes with her own duffle coat.



They start an unlikely romance, although she bans any form of affection, at least in public. Her idea of romance is to set fire to his leg hairs, which Oliver is fine with but desperate to lose his virginity, he would happily put up with worse. In fact, Jordana is pretty much a complete mystery to Oliver, your typical opaque teenage girl. However, things go better than you would expect and they form a relationship built on a shared love of setting fire to things and bullying, although the bullying part is totally against Oliver’s principles but he knows he has to compromise, if he’s to get his end away.



His chance comes when he gets the house to himself one night and woos her with a prawn cocktail and a terrible seduction scene that sees her running for the door. However Jordana returns when she reads the note he gave her thanking her for taking his virginity... even though she didn’t, but he still gave her the note. She takes him back upstairs to do the honours.

Oliver tries to lift their relationship above mere arson and other minor misdemeanours by taking her to see ‘The Passion Of Joan Of Arc’, a silent film from 1928, and offering her King Lear, JD Salinger and Nietzsche to read, but she still prefers the arson and of course setting fire to his leg hairs. Well there’s always the sex. She does though gradually lower her guard, invites him into her life and even takes him home to meet her family.

Alongside this ‘romance’ is the story of Oliver’s parents, Jill (Sally Hawkins) and Lloyd (Noah Taylor) and their marriage, which is on the rocks. Oliver knows this because his parents haven’t left the dimmer switch in their bedroom on low for months, meaning they haven’t been getting up to what he has.



Despite this, his father, a depressive man who is the Open University professor personified (lifted straight off a 1970's TV screen), yes that once was his job, offers relationship advice to Oliver. Well, he did once rip off his vest in a fit of passion. He also presents Oliver with a mix tape of music to soundtrack his relationships. Complete with upbeat songs for the good times and depressive ones for the inevitable break-up.



The main reason for his parent’s rocky spell is Graham (Paddy Considine), an ex-boyfriend of his mothers’, and now a flamboyant new age ‘I am a prism’ mystic ‘ninja’, who has now moved in next door. A man who deserves everything he gets.



Oliver tries to help save his parents' marriage but ends up doing anything but. From his teenage point of view I guess all his actions made sense, whereas from our point of view they didn’t, which I imagine is the point. The film kind of mocks adolescence and gets its laughs by exposing the difference between Oliver’s interpretation of events and reality.

The film is amusing but to say it’s a comedy, as has been advertised, would do it a huge disservice, it’s more than that. In fact I enjoyed the drama more than the humour. Although the audience tonight frequently got the two mixed up. Like at Jordana's house, in a moment that was supposed to be poignant. Jordana's mum has a brain tumour and when the whole family started to fall apart in Oliver’s presence, Oliver didn’t know where to put himself. It was affecting and painful but not funny.

Oliver is a brilliant caricature of a deeply serious teenager, who is as equally endearing as he is appalling. Horrifically he plans to assassinate Jordana's dog to teach her about grief but thankfully it doesn’t happen. The dog gets run over by a train before he gets chance. Yet, he still gets his chance to be a bastard to her. When she requests his presence at the hospital for emotional support when her mum has a life saving operation, he stands her up. At a time when she needed him most and for what we see as no good reason.



She dumps him and he flips his father’s mix tape over to listen to the break up side from which pours Alex Turner’s solo début. Which is perhaps a bit too modern for a professor straight out of the 1970’s but we’ll let that pass.

An excellent film, about the horrors of growing up and some, perhaps a bit Adrian Mole-esque at times but hugely enjoyable.