Robert Carlyle goes occasionally Begbie in this film (i.e a bit ranty and ragey, teetering on the vicious tip of violence) But mostly he’s being kind and caring Robert Carlyle; a middle-aged low key loser with life seemingly finished even before it began. Where life got started up, consummated, then finished off was back in [...]
Ken Loach doing his usual social documenting of working class nitty grittiness. It’s “Boys from the Blackstuff” meets “Auf Wiedersehen Pet”; indignant about the selfish “Me Me Me” property developer greed of the Thatcher years – but leavened by typical Scouse (and Manc) piss taking, and softened with a short if not so sweet romance. [...]
I know some people find this film spine-curdlingly awful; not in the sense that it’s a badly made film – more that certain scenes in it are disgusting. Like that infamous Ewan McGregor head down “Worst toilet in Scotland” scene. Or when he’s going cold turkey and hallucinating babies crawling across the ceiling. It’s meant [...]
