Funny Cow * * * *
There were times when I was in awe of this film. As the story moves from the woman she is, narrating directly to the camera, and then showing us her childhood, it rapidly builds a character you become fascinated with.
Unfortunately, it does loose it's intensity toward the end, along with its powerful trajectory, but nevertheless it remains an outstanding film, showcasing some superb acting.
"Kitchen Sink" I think is the right term for the genre. Set in North England in the sixties and seventies. Rows of houses where every tenant is poor, the kids are rough, everyone smokes, men work in factories or coal mines and drink to excess down at the Working Mens Club. You could say it's a bit like Ken Loach, minus the preachiness or the need to blame the Government for everything.
However, I am lead to believe (maybe through the better part of Ken Loach?) that warm friendship was deep between these people and caring and looking out for one another was common. Regrettably Funny Cow does not show much of that. Nearly everyone is bitter, hateful cynical, desperate or violent.
It's directed by Adrian Shergold and written by Yorkshire man actor Tony Pitts. I know it's a million miles away but the style of drama reminded me a little of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, where, for the sake of dramatic intensity, characters are just a wee bit exaggerated.
At times Funny Cow comes across like a respectfully made biography of a real person. If it were a true story I'd believe it, because the characters are so fully developed, especially Maxine Peake as "Funny Cow". Her's is a magnificent performance.
Her story is the tragic pattern of a girl with a brutal father growing up and marrying an equally brutal husband - because, somehow that;s the kind of man she relates to, even as she witnesses her own mother degenerate into a self loathing alcoholic.
On the other side she's a woman who wants to be a comedian. She saw "Lenny" (not Bruce!) an has-been comedian, perform at the club, and despite him being booed off the stage and heckled into submission, she still decides that's what she wants to do.
During her progress we see her childhood (she always was a cheeky and funny wag) through to her tragic marriage and through to Angus, a genteel book shop owner who falls in love with her. He seems to romanticise her working class toughness. He is kind and gentle and supportive but she cannot love him. "I cant be your Eliza Doolittle" she tells him
But you sense that in the end she overcomes all to make it as a comedian with her own voice - one that does not please her family, and that's not because of the rude, racist, homophobic style of joke that was common in those days.
It's quite a theatrical work using devices such as herself in the future doing a monologue for a television program, or even meeting her childhood self in the flesh.
At the same time it has chosen to use cinematic references that might be considered pretentious, yet they work, such as the classic French film The Red Balloon.
Like any risk taking film, It would be easy to find faults with Funny Cow, but it is such a bold and creative film I found much more reason to give it praise.
Unfortunately, it does loose it's intensity toward the end, along with its powerful trajectory, but nevertheless it remains an outstanding film, showcasing some superb acting.
"Kitchen Sink" I think is the right term for the genre. Set in North England in the sixties and seventies. Rows of houses where every tenant is poor, the kids are rough, everyone smokes, men work in factories or coal mines and drink to excess down at the Working Mens Club. You could say it's a bit like Ken Loach, minus the preachiness or the need to blame the Government for everything.
However, I am lead to believe (maybe through the better part of Ken Loach?) that warm friendship was deep between these people and caring and looking out for one another was common. Regrettably Funny Cow does not show much of that. Nearly everyone is bitter, hateful cynical, desperate or violent.
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| Stop me if you've heard this one. |
At times Funny Cow comes across like a respectfully made biography of a real person. If it were a true story I'd believe it, because the characters are so fully developed, especially Maxine Peake as "Funny Cow". Her's is a magnificent performance.
Her story is the tragic pattern of a girl with a brutal father growing up and marrying an equally brutal husband - because, somehow that;s the kind of man she relates to, even as she witnesses her own mother degenerate into a self loathing alcoholic.
On the other side she's a woman who wants to be a comedian. She saw "Lenny" (not Bruce!) an has-been comedian, perform at the club, and despite him being booed off the stage and heckled into submission, she still decides that's what she wants to do.
During her progress we see her childhood (she always was a cheeky and funny wag) through to her tragic marriage and through to Angus, a genteel book shop owner who falls in love with her. He seems to romanticise her working class toughness. He is kind and gentle and supportive but she cannot love him. "I cant be your Eliza Doolittle" she tells him
But you sense that in the end she overcomes all to make it as a comedian with her own voice - one that does not please her family, and that's not because of the rude, racist, homophobic style of joke that was common in those days.
It's quite a theatrical work using devices such as herself in the future doing a monologue for a television program, or even meeting her childhood self in the flesh.
At the same time it has chosen to use cinematic references that might be considered pretentious, yet they work, such as the classic French film The Red Balloon.
Like any risk taking film, It would be easy to find faults with Funny Cow, but it is such a bold and creative film I found much more reason to give it praise.
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