Indie Gems: Sweet Sixteen

-
Hope you like cursing.

Liam (Martin Compston) is a 15 year old boy from a rough part of town. His mother (Michelle Coulter) is in prison because she took the fall for her asshole boyfriend, Stan. (Gary McCormack) Liam lives with his sister Chantelle (Annmarie Fulton) who isn't nearly as forgiving to their mother. He wants to buy a place for he and his mother when she gets out so that she can get away from Stan, unfortunately Liam's upbringing pretty much ensures that any means of cash flow won't be legal.

This film feels very authentic, and that's partly why I brought up the cursing. There's a lot of swearing in this movie. Almost every other word coming out of someone's mouth at any given time has a swear word in it. Yet, it worked and it wasn't distracting. (Think Rob Zombie's movies, for example, and how ridiculous all of the dialogue sounds) These actors could all be randoms found on the streets of Scotland for all we know, they feel honest and true.

Compston is magnificent. He fits the role of Liam so well and really delivers a stellar performance. He carries the film. Sure, some of it is pretty standard. Asshole boyfriend, stupid mother, etc, but it worked as a whole.

Grade: B

Memorable Quote: "If not Stan, then someone else, and someone else, and someone else." - Chantelle (Annmarie Fulton)

Comments

  1. thevoid99July 17, 2015 at 5:08 PM

    This is a film that missed my big list. Yet, I think it's one of the finest films I had ever seen as I'm surprised that it was made by Ken Loach of all people. Then again, this is the same guy who did Kes so it shouldn't have been a surprise.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamJuly 18, 2015 at 7:06 AM

      The only other work of his I was familiar with was The Wind That Shakes The Barley, and I couldn't even finish it. It just bored me. He showed a lot of promise here though.

      Delete
    2. thevoid99July 18, 2015 at 4:55 PM

      I think this film is a more accessible feature than The Wind That Shakes the Barley but the one to watch is Kes. Another film of his that I like is Looking for Eric which I think is a fun and enjoyable film.

      Delete
    3. Brittani BurnhamJuly 18, 2015 at 9:38 PM

      I'll have to check out both of those. Thanks!

      Delete
  2. JoshJuly 24, 2015 at 4:28 AM

    So glad you liked it! Compston blew me away. I'll second the Kes recommendation, but I'd rank The Wind That Shakes the Barley beneath the other two.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamJuly 24, 2015 at 7:47 AM

      I'm definitely going to check out Kes after you both suggested it.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing ...
Read more

Indie Gems: Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

-
Image
Passionate about your profession? I had never heard of this film until it ended up on one of Jason's favorite horror movie lists around Halloween. It immediately sounded interesting to me, so of course I threw it in my Netflix queue. (and if I'm just now watching it after adding it around Halloween, you know how ridiculous my queue is) Taylor (Angela Goethals) is a journalist who, along with a film crew decides to follow around a serial killer named Leslie Vernon. (Nathan Baesel) He plans on doing the typical slasher thing - getting a bunch of drunk teens in an abandoned house and knocking them off one by one. He gets advice from a retired serial killer, Eugene (Scott Wilson) and is threatened by a man who's on to him, Doc Holloran (Robert Englund) Taylor and crew are there capturing it all. Leslie Vernon is fucking hilarious to start with, and clearly very passionate about what he does. He tells Taylor all of his secrets and can barely contain his excitemen...
Read more

Please join me in my Favorite Movie Titles Blogathon!

-
Image
Earlier this week I made a post where I ran through the letters of the alphabet with my favorite movie titles. There were a few people that suggested I turn it into a blogathon, and I've never done that before. So here goes nothing! Since this is my first attempt at a blogathon, it's all pretty simple, and it's hopefully a quick post that everyone can join in. Rules: 1) Going through the alphabet, list your favorite movie title beginning with each letter.  2) You don't have to necessarily  like the movie to use it's title.  3) Use the banner at the top of this post in yours. 4) Please have submissions in by Friday, May 30th*. (But I'll be honest, if you send them to me after that date, I'll still add them to my post.) You can either leave a link to your post in the comments here or tweet it to me, ( @ramblingfilm )  Thanks everyone! :)  *I had to move the date back a week due to Photobucket threatening me with bandwidth issues. But...
Read more