Mary Queen of Scots (2018)

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After watching this splendid modern version of Mary Stewart's brave fight for her rightful claim for the English throne you realise the similarity between big Theresa May and Elizabeth 1^st, conniving, nasty and self opinionated except that Elizabeth does not quite seem as bad even if she did have Mary’s head removed. You’re also notice that the English attitude towards Scotland and its people has not changed very much in the interim period.

Based on the John Guy award winning historical biography My Heart is My Own: the Life of Mary Queen of Scots and directed by Josie Rourke on her feature film debut, (Rourke background is in theatre direction) This version is a lot more detailed than the 1971 film of the same name but it has its critics and historical faux pas. As we all are aware the Queen of the Scots never actually met the Queen of England and although Saoirse Ronan’s Scottish accent is absolutely pitch perfect, Mary was said to have a French accent but neither detracted from my enjoyment of the movie, a little poetic licence is always allowed in historical movies.

Alongside some cracking Glencoe scenery is some notable acting. Not just Saoirse Ronan as Mary and Margot Robbie as Elizabeth but also David Tennant who played the evil Protestant cleric John Knox and Martin Compston as Marys protector and eventual third husband. Its a very enjoyable slice of history where the two hour running time speeds to its conclusion, in my opinion, far too quickly.

The Wee Man.

Another film that the critics don’t agree with me on is a gangster movie directed and written by Ray Burdis and based in Glasgow, (but filmed in the East End of London because the Strathclyde police were not chuffed by the way they were portrayed in the movie!)  The Wee Man (2012) depicts the ‘true’ story of the Scottish gangland villain Paul Ferris who from the age of nineteen became an enforcer for the notorious Glasgow born gangster Arthur ‘The Godfather’ Thompson, collecting debts and allegedly administering ‘justice’ on the big mans behalf. The movie looks at Ferris’s background, his family and friends and how he came to become a criminal. It is claimed that his life of crime started when following several years of bullying by a local criminal family, and still a teenager, he carried out a series of revenge knife attacks on the brothers and was arrested and sent to Longriggend Remand Centre. It was on his release he came to the notice of the man that was to rule Glasgow’s criminal underworld for over thirty years.

 

Thompson Snr, Thompson Jnr and McGraw.

Paul Ferris with Martin Compston. 

The strength of this movie, which was based on the books that Ferris wrote while he was incarcerated over the years, is in the acting. Martin Compston, who has been appearing in the very well received BBC crime drama The Line of Duty, brings Paul Ferris to life, while John Hannah, who played Rebus in the TV series of the same name from 2000 to 2001 before Ken Stot made the character his own in 2006, makes a convincing fist of Tam ‘The Licensee’ McGraw. Also in the cast are Patrick Bergin as Arthur Thompson, Stephan McCole as Thompson Jnr Arthur’s son and Rita Tushingham as Arthur’s loyal wife. Also it would be remiss not to mention Denis Lawson who brings a real touch of class to the role of Paul Ferris’s dad.  All right it not the Godfather (1972) or even Peter Mullan’s Glasgow crime story Neds (2010) but it was certainly worth digging out of the bargain bins at Fopp’s.

Filth.

Its not often that a film goes on general release in Scotland before it does in the rest of the UK, at least not before Independence next September, but that’s what happened with Filth (2013) a British crime comedy-drama written and directed by Jon S Baird and based on Irvine Welsh’s third novel of the same name published in 1998. This is Baird’s second feature film after 2008’s Cass the true story of a former football hooligan who became a writer. I suppose that this new film is also about a thug but this time he is a member of the police force!

The nice policeman teaches the wee man some sign language. 

The problems associated with self loathing seems to appear in many of the movies I have watched recently and raises its psychiatric head once more in this every day story of a bigoted, corrupt and substance abusing alcoholic Edinburgh based Scottish Detective, a sort of over the top John Rebus who hates himself to such a degree that he makes nearly every body’s life a misery he comes into contact with.

Obviously part of the investigatiom!

This terrific piece of story telling is the bastard offspring of a three way cinematic shag between Clockwork Orange (1971), Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant (1992) and Trainspotting (1996) and comprises some of the cream of British acting including Joanne Froggatt, Shirley Henderson, Kate Dickie, Eddie Marsan, Jim Broadbent, Martin Compston, Garry Lewis and John Sessions to name but a few. But even in this exhorted company James McAvoy stands out as the bipolar junkie, Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson who when asked by his superior why he joined the police force he replied ‘polices oppression’ ‘did you want to stamp it out from the inside?’ ‘No’ replies Robertson ‘I wanted to be part of it’ which really sums up the character.  

Now there's a man who's not always in control?

It’s a movie that will no doubt divide audiences. As Peter Bradshaw remarked in his critique it amounts to Acid Rain on Leith, but thankfully there’s not a sign of a dance routine although we do get a song from David Soul!

SoulBoy

Dance the night away!

Once voted ‘the world’s best disco’ in America’s Keyboard magazine Wigan’s legendary Casino was the main location for northern soul all-nighters in the 1970’s. SoulBoy (2010) is a nostalgia trip for the fans of this musical genre. A corny plot centres on Joe McCain, restless and dissatisfied with his life as a deliveryman and bored with his visits to the pub known locally as The Onion. That is until he falls for trainee Hairdresser Jane who persuades him to travel to Wigan to sample the delights of the northern soul scene which eventually became his escape from a hum drum existence in Stoke on Trent.

Shimmy Marcus’s coming of age movie is certainly not going to win a cluster of awards but as pure entertainment, with its great soundtrack and lively dance scenes, it was very enjoyable. Ken Loach prodigy Martin Compston (Sweet Sixteen 2002 and Tickets 2005) stars as Joe McCain with Lily Allen’s brother Alfie as Joe’s best mate, Donkey Punch star Nicola Burley as Jane and the great Irish entertainer Pat Shortt (Garage 2007) as Brendan.

The story of Northern Soul is a difficult one to capture in a feature film. We were informed at Monday nights RBC Film Club that the phase Northern Soul emanated from a record shop run by journalist Dave Godin in Covent Garden London called Soul City. In an interview with the Mojo magazine in 2002 Godwin, who wrote a weekly column in Blues and Soul, said that he first came up with the term in 1968. He had started to notice that northern football fans, who where in London to watch their clubs away games, visited his store to buy records. He discovered that they were not interested in the latest music from the American charts but more obscure recordings by lesser known artists that had been initially released in very limited numbers, often by small regional US labels. The music genre is also associated with a particular dance style featuring various athletic spins, flips and backdrops coupled with some rather dubious fashions. It spread to various northern dance halls like the Wigan Casino, shown in the film, along with others like the Twisted Wheel in Manchester, Catacombs in Wolverhampton and Blackpool’s Mecca. There are still to this day regular northern soul events in various parts of the United Kingdom.