“Comedic” is
not a word one would generally apply to the films of Ken Loach, whose
films spotlight the struggles of working-class Britain (or Los Angeles,
in the case of 1999’s Bread and Roses). Like Sweet 16 (but
with older teens), the
setting here is (primarily) Glasgow, and, like that movie, it’s
helpfully subtitled. The variety of English is both distinctively
accented and filled with delightfully unfamiliar lingo, and that’s even
before the plot’s oddest and most unique element, which
is its central character’s newfound interest in high-end whiskey, comes up.
Why,
it’s just like Sideways, if instead of California wine snobs the
central characters were a Scottish trying-to-reform teen thug and his
“community payback”-serving friends. He has
a family vendetta against him, a newborn son, and a scar on his face
that further dims his job prospects, yet this film is indeed a comedy.
Its sympathies lie, as always with Loach, with the underdogs, and he has
collaborated with his frequent screenwriting
partner Paul Laverty (who also wrote Sweet Sixteen), yet the approach is a touch lighter, more likely to
appeal to a mainstream sensibility, especially the second half, wherein the group of friends embarks on an unlikely caper. And, yes, some of it is pretty
funny.
IMDb link
viewed 3/21/2013 7:30 pm at Gershman Y [PFS screening] and reviewed 3/22–4/28/13
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