Our Ladies (2021)

Based on a book, "The Sopranos", by Alan Warner, Our Ladies is a terrific, feel-good, jaunt around Edinburgh in the 1990s, allowing viewers to have fun watching the exploits of a bawdy group of convent schoolgirls. It calls to mind a number of other, equally fine films, from The Trouble With Angels to Heaven Help Us, and more recent Scottish fare like The Angel's Share.

Orla (Tallulah Greive) is held up as an example of the miraculous power of god, thanks to a trip to Lourdes that seems to have helped her recover from leukaemia, but she really wants to test her luck and get one more "miracle" while on a day trip with her school choir to Edinburgh. She is supported in this plan by a group of friends. There's Finnoula (Abigail Lawrie), Chell (Rona Morison), Kylah (Marli Siu), Manda (Sally Messham), and Kay (Eve Austin). Not that these girls are all friends with one another - things change throughout the movie, and Kay starts off very much as the goody-two-shoes outsider of the group - but they're all happy to keep Orla company, and to maybe make their own unforgettable experience while running free through Auld Reekie.

Directed by Michael Caton-Jones, a bit of a veteran with an equal amount of good and bad throughout his filmography, Our Ladies is, in many ways, very standard stuff, which doesn't make it any less enjoyable. It's almost refreshing that the script, co-written by Caton-Jones and Alan Sharp, weaves between predictable, but satisfying, moments and a humour and attitude that keeps us firmly in the 1990s. Updating the source material could have been entirely possible, but it somehow feels all the better for being set when it is, with the girls equally oblivious to how much the entire world will change around them as they are to how much their own lives can change once their schooldays are finished.

Bittersweet in a few different ways, there's a perfect balance of reality and optimism on display here. These characters have seen so many people around them become stuck, and this has given the impression that it's hard to really break away from their home town and make a better life. Thankfully, it's also strengthened their resolve to do just that, and the trip to Edinburgh is both a time to try as many new experiences as possible and a time to dip their toes into a lake of freedom that they hope to swim in for a long time as they move further into full adulthood.

Things are helped massively by the talented cast. Greive is the heart of the film, and she's a lovely, sweet, presence. In contrast, both Siu and Messham play characters who bristle whenever things change at a pace they're not necessarily ready for, one wanting to lead the way and one just not wanting to be left behind. Morison and Austin are very good, handling their different issues in different ways, and Lawrie plays her part well, the character with arguably the most potential to realise her ambitions, without ever coming across as too patronising or smug. You also get a wonderful small role for Kate Dickie (as Sister Condron), someone I always enjoy watching onscreen.

There are mis-steps, with the plot sometimes feeling a bit overcrowded, one or two moments a bit too neat, and some scenes showing sides of characters that make them much more difficult to like, but the good far outweighs the bad here. And the good includes a beautiful ending that breaks away from the style of everything preceding it, giving you a goosebump-raising rendition of a wonderful song and a cameo appearance that will be sure to put a big grin on your face.

8/10

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Mubi Monday: This Boy's Life (1993)

A fairly standard coming-of-age/memoir tale, This Boy's Life is a film you may have heard of before, mainly because of the celebrated performances from Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio. And it's highly recommended to fans of any of the leads (Ellen Barkin being the third central character).

DiCaprio is Toby, who often likes to be called Jack, a young boy who is used to tagging around with his mother, Caroline (Ellen Barkin), as she tries to make a good life for them both. Caroline meets Dwight (Robert De Niro), a man who initially seems pleasant, if a bit uncool. It doesn't take long to see that Dwight is happy to lie and manipulate to keep himself in a good light, while also keeping everything in his favour, and he and Toby start to clash in increasingly violent confrontations. Toby seems to be a good kid, at heart, but often runs with some of the wrong crowd, but Dwight is not necessarily the good man he keeps trying to make himself out as.

Based on the book by Tobias Wolff, the Toby of the main story (this is his life), and adapted into screenplay form by Robert Getchell, this is a consistently solid drama that is elevated by an absolutely fantastic cast. Michael Caton-Jones directs well, dropping a number of pop hits from the era throughout the soundtrack, allowing the dialogue to reveal so much about all of the characters, and framing many of the confrontations in a way that focuses on the imbalance of power and the physical threat posed by Dwight.

But it's all about this superb cast. DiCaprio makes one hell of a large move away from the daffy fun of Critters 3, easily holding his own alongside the adults, and shows the talent that would put him on the radar of so many other directors. De Niro gives another fantastic turn, unafraid to play a character who is so jealous and petty that he will go to any lengths to make himself look like "the big man". Barkin may have less to do, but she's an essential layer in between the two main men in her life. Jonah Blechman is also wonderful, playing a young man named Arthur Gayle, and you have the cast list filled out by the likes of Eliza Dushku, Chris Cooper, Tobey Maguire, and Gerrit Graham (many of them onscreen for just a few minutes).

The focus throughout stays on Toby and Dwight. The story belongs to the latter, but is so clearly moulded and overshadowed by the former. It's almost like coming up for air when you are reminded that Toby obviously did something to eventually get his story told, and it's extremely satisfying to watch Dwight devolve, little by little, from angry man to whining baby. It is, essentially, the way that so many men like him really are. And not everyone is lucky enough to escape their pleas and clutches.

9/10

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