Just managed to track this movie down after reading about it online last year. This is written and directed by Jessica Hynes who was one of the writers for the cult comedy Spaced on Channel 4. She is more well known as a comedy actor and writer and also features a number of other well known UK comedians such as Sally Phillips and Alice Lowe. However this is not a comedy.
This is real life kitchen sink type of drama which explores motives around bullying and violence from a mainly female perspective. We get to see bullying but we also get to see what may be at the root of these issues, this is not a simplistic Hollywood good girl/bad girl type of narrative. Its more complicated than that.
What this film did manage to achieve was to not paint people into simplistic archetypes of character and in particular it wasn't trying to sell the story violence and abuse is a male only problem.
Its more sympathetic to males than some writers would have been.
The film is beautifully shot and scored and is certainly aimed at the arthouse circuit.
If in depth emotional studies are your thing then this is for you, do not expect any wacky Edgar Wright style shenanigans cos that aint what this is.
This is a mature a accomplished directing debut and I hope its reflective of whats to come in the future from Jessica.
Also she managed to squeeze some drum and bass in there and I am unsure if she also had her kids in this movie? It seems like a labour of love and she was able to get support from some of her friends to make this.
Recommended.
