Mubi Monday: Ali & Ava (2021)

Some people can still feel lonely when surrounded by crowds of people. Some people can hide that loneliness as they work hard to make the day better for other people. Some people only start to realise how lonely they have been when they meet someone who makes them feel seen. Ali & Ava is a film that looks at loneliness, in a number of ways, but also looks at class, culture, and what it takes people to connect at a time in their lives when they may feel very weighed down by accumulated baggage from their past.

Written and directed by the fantastic Clio Barnard, the most basic summary of Ali & Ava is that it's about, well, Ali (Adeel Akhtar) meeting Ava (Claire Rushbrook). Ali has to come to terms with the fact that his marriage is over, but he still urges his wife to be cautious as she looks to begin/continue a new relationship with someone that others may deem an unsuitable match. Ava is a single mother, having to spend some of her time tip-toeing around a son, Callum (Shaun Thomas), who is still struggling to deal with the death of his father. When Ali and Ava meet, they start to become fast friends, which means they may want to take things to another level. It's just a shame that not everyone around them will root for a happy ending.

Barnard really does great work in this territory. She has the ability to present British characters from working class backgrounds that never feel exploited, treated in a patronising way, or used to simply present a lesson about the crushing inhumanity of the societal mechanisms that have been built over time to grind down bodies and souls with equal consistency. None of the characters here feel like they are there just to be pigeon-holed, they're just very real people who happen to live with less opportunities and more hardship than others may have.

Barnard is helped by the fact that her lead cast members are so good. Both Akhtar and Rushbrook easily hold your attention while acting separate from one another, but it's crucial that they seem to give each other a boost to make them shine brighter when keeping one another company. Thomas may just be the angry young men causing tension for most of his screentime, but he does it well, and presents an ugly pushback against happiness that helps to keep willing for everything to improve for Ali & Ava. While not being given too much to do, Ellora Torchia, Vinny Dhillon, Macy Shackleton, Ruby Lowther also do good work, as does everyone else helping to populate the small pockets of personal space shown here.

Nothing is overdone, from the performances to the way everything is presented, and Barnard keeps everything grounded while also delivering one or two moments that are surprisingly cinematic. Ali being a bit of a DJ allows for some bursts of lively music here and there, as well as some interesting shots that show him enjoying a dance move or two in an isolated spot that he uses for his own "silent disco". 

It won't ever feel like essential viewing, but you may be very glad that you made time for it as the end credits roll, especially when you realise how much more time you could happily spend in the company of two characters who do such a great job of uplifting one another. 

8/10

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Mubi Monday: The Arbor (2010)

Sometimes I review a movie. Sometimes I review it by focusing on one particular aspect. And sometimes I end up going off on some tangent because a movie has brought up a lot of strong emotions, a reaction that I think warrants more discussion than the technical elements.

The Arbor is a documentary about Andrea Dunbar, a playwright who broke through with works that were drawn from her own working-class life. But it’s not a traditional documentary. Actors are onscreen, lip-synching to audio from interviews conducted with those who knew, and/or were related to Dunbar. It’s a hell of a story, especially when concentrating on the abuse, depression, addiction issues, and other obstacles that get in the way of happiness and self-care.

Clio Barnard does a great job of assembling all of the material here and presenting it in a way that doesn’t sugar-coat things, yet also makes it a bit easier to stomach as the cast relay the words directly from the interview subjects. There are also some scenes showing excerpts from Dunbar’s plays, with some moments feeling very much ripped from Dunbar’s life, considering how much she wrote based on her own life.

Here’s the thing though. While this does paint an accurate portrait of Dunbar, and the lives of those she affected so strongly, the biggest thing that comes across here is the constant class divide that has harmed so many British people over the years. Whether it is the various reactions to Dunbar’s works, some are impressed and some are disgusted, or the frustrating nonchalance from people who saw someone spiralling and just thought that was something that couldn’t be changed.

There are so many comments around that make growing up poor seem carefree and delightful (all about kids making do without smart phones and judging time by the streetlights), but growing up in poverty, as lower class, does a lot of damage, often more than anyone realises until it is too late. You cave in to peer pressure and make bad decisions, you may be the victim of different types of abuse, better prospects seem as distant as another planet, and any sense of self-worth is eroded to the smallest granule. Without commenting on it herself, Barnard lays this all out for viewers to digest.

Maybe this will only ever truly resonate with people who have been in that environment. Maybe those who recognise the truth in Dunbar’s work will be able to see the importance of constant attempts to break down social divides and narrow the massive wealth gap. Or maybe people will just continue to value the art of “working class heroes” without ever considering why someone has been left to process so much pain and sadness without the support that can be in place for so many others.

Although it is all about Dunbar, The Arbor is essential viewing because it is about everything that infused her work. And everything that infused her work came from the swept-under-the-carpet pockets of society that remain sorely neglected in the here and now.

8/10

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Mubi Monday: The Selfish Giant (2013)

Very loosely based on a short story of the same name, by Oscar Wilde nonetheless, The Selfish Giant is the kind of working-class drama that us Brits can do so well, and it's a most impressive feature debut from writer-director Clio Barnard (who would do equally good work with her next film too, Dark River).

Conner Chapman is Arbor, a bit of a scally, to put it mildly, and his best friend is Swifty (Shaun Thomas). Both boys are out to make some cash, with Arbor the more desperate of the two, hoping to help his mother out of some bad debt. Bunking off school when they can, until they are suspended, the two boys spend their time trying to get Kitten (Sean Gilder) to give them a chance. He owns a local scrapyard, and won't question the legitimacy of their finds. But Arbor starts to push more and more, driven by the quest for a bigger payday.

Anchored by two child performances that are simply superb, The Selfish Giant is a film that you suspect from the very beginning isn't going to end well for everyone. Part of you may wait patiently to see Arbor get his comeuppance, but knowing that he drags Swifty along with him makes it always bittersweet when you suspect things are due to go wrong. 

Barnard does a great job of getting the performances from her young leads that match the material without softening the edges. Arbor will make you angry at times, especially throughout most of the first half of the movie, but you get to see moments that clarify his motivation, making him a bit easier to warm to, in between his mood swings and tantrums. Swifty is easily led astray, but you can see a small ray of hope for him to change his life around, especially as he bonds with the large horse owned by Kitten.

Chapman and Thomas are both excellent in their roles, surrounded by a fine selection of reliable adult co-stars, including Gilder, Lorraine Ashbourne, Rebecca Manley, and fleeting appearances from Ralph Ineson, Ian Burfield, Steve Evets, and Siobhan Finneran.

The young leads may not create a fantasy world for themselves, certainly not in a way we usually see with children onscreen escaping reality, but they risk a similar lack of attachment to events around them as they start to reach further and higher for some kind of envisioned rope ladder that they see as a possible escape route from their daily lives. It's easy to believe in though, especially for those who have any experience of poverty and struggles. The more gravity tries to keep you pinned to the ground, the harder you work to believe in anything that may lift you up, whether that is using some of your money to buy lottery tickets or believing that anyone in the government will work hard to help change the circumstances that you've been surrounded by every day.

Not a fun watch, although there are moments of levity here and there, The Selfish Giant is definitely worthwhile. If you're unfamiliar with the struggle depicted here, perhaps just take a moment once the end credits roll to check up on the current stats in the UK regarding poverty, regional economic failures, and the many people who are stuck in a life that seems to be a million miles away from your own.

8/10

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Dark River (2017)

If there's one thing that British cinema can do it's explore damaged individuals in a cloudy, tempestuous, dreary landscape that reflects the mindset of the featured character. And here we have Dark River, a film that begins with news of a death and quickly reveals that there isn't all that much life left in a couple of people who are resolutely clinging onto this mortal coil.

Ruth Wilson plays Alice, a woman who, after being informed of the death of her father (Sean Bean), heads back to the family farm for the first time in years. She wants to get it all back in order and move forward with the whole endeavour, which doesn't impress her brother, Joe (Mark Stanley), who has spent many years getting his hands dirty while his sister stayed away. It's not long until the two siblings butt heads, with anger and resentment bubbling up to create a mixture that could explode at any time.

There aren't really any surprises in Dark River, in terms of the main plot developments. Most viewers will know what is coming from the very first scenes. That's not a problem, however, when the film is carried by two performances as fantastic as those from Wilson and Stanley. The former is a bit ahead of the latter, but both do excellent work here. You get a selection of supporting cast members, and Sean Bean appears here and there in flashbacks/visions, but the film really belongs to the two leads, and they make the most of the opportunity.

Director Clio Barnard (adapting the novel by Rose Tremain) takes what could have been an unrelentingly grim experience and manages to make it more bearable, somehow, showing the surrounding land to have more to it than just what is visible to the uninformed viewer, the necessarily hands-on relationship that the leads have with the environment and animals, and the strong bond between brother and sister that is still there, despite all of the heated emotions that they direct at one another.

Dark River covers familiar territory (funnily enough, one movie that came to mind while I was watching this was another with river in the title, Mystic River) but does enough to separate it from other works. A large part of that is down to the central performances, but an equally large part of it is down to the fact that so many moments show this as being from someone, either in the source material or the translation of it, who actually understands how people can react to others around them while trying to process an intense trauma from their past that will never leave their thoughts.

Sometimes you get angry enough to lash out at those closest to you, sometimes you are a jangling bag of nerves, and sometimes you just wander in a field until you fall down, lying there while the rain continues to pour down upon you while your breath hitches and you hope the end may have come at last. This movie shows all of that, and more.

8/10

You can dip your toes in the water here.
Americans can get it here.