User reviews

This film is stunning - a visually powerful glimpse into a savage, precarious world, with humour and tenderness.

It can't just be reduced to a political diatribe, although the post-industrial setting is bleak and the poverty grinding. Mainly it's the story of a young lad's struggle towards adulthood, ahead of his time and in tough circumstances, as he learns the hard way what it is to be a grown-up.

The echoes of 'Kes' are obvious, but with the destruction of that old industrial world the characters too are ambiguous and troubled. Arbor is a complex mix of ruthlessness, cheekiness and wit. We see his character develop from being a cocky little tawt to something altogether more complicated and touching...

Since Shane Meadows hit us with phenomenal This Is England in 2007, there's been a dusty spot on the mantle of gritty kitchen sink dramas that truly capture the modern current of low- class British life. Fish Tank has been the only contender since but it doesn't feel like it has stuck as firmly as England, which then spawned several mini-series that I really should watch. Instead, British film seems to be concerned with crowd-pleasers after the roaring but typical success of The King's Speech. BAFTA nominees for Best British Film have been questionable this year, with big budget or mainstream films such as Gravity, Mandela, Philomena, Rush and Saving Mr. Banks, all with big stars on their shoulders. The only exception in the bunch is Clio Barnad's The Selfish Giant, and is the only one that truly deserves the honour. Now that Steve McQueen has stepped firmly into the limelight with the powerful 12 Years A Slave, I must urge that Barnard is the next under-the-radar British voice that needs to be heard.

Loosely based off Oscar Wilde's short story of the same name, Clio Barnard's vision is comparable to a Ken Loach slice-of-life style but rather than the sloppiness and lack of clarity that style can bring, it's startlingly energetic and tight in its delivery. It immediately engages you with its opening scene of a cathartic pounding of rage under a claustrophobic bed then a sincerely moving image of holding hands, all from angry underprivileged boys. It's a rough world depicted here. Conflict is around every corner without exception. Characters step outside and witness kids chased down the street. The harshest swear words are thrown around without much regard for their consequence. It's intimidating, but our characters embrace it and dive in with both feet. It's a world of scroungers, those that see the resale value in everything and abuse that opportunity. It's a bleak life, but the film executes it in such an honest way that it doesn't feel preachy in the way that this is the limits of quality of life and future in the working- class north. Their immoral tunnel vision is one of necessity rather than choice. It's a cruel situation that the film immerses you without comfort.

While there may be a touch of melodrama with the theme of the mother's concern and the pacing it thrives off of seems unnatural, what makes the film work is that it still feels authentic in its performances and script. It's perfectly reflected in its terrific cinematography. It's rough and raw, but it's well-measured in its framing and characters don't get lost in its saturation. The real revelation is its lead performance, Connor Chapman, who gives a genuine and confident performance for his age. Mature, if not sophisticated, beyond his years to be able to take on a brutish character like this with such fearlessness. At first you feel animosity towards him, then a deep pity burrows deeper and deeper. Then the film utterly shatters your heart with its inevitable Shakespearean tragedy making it an unforgettable experience. Any doubts I had about the films power hinges on those fateful final 15 minutes. It may be bleak, but there's a thin ray of hope bursting through the grey clouds. The Selfish Giant single-handedly puts my faith back in British independent filmmaking. I hope this sparks a new era.

8/10

Based loosely on the Oscar Wilde story, THE SELFISH GIANT is set in contemporary Bradford, north England, and focuses on the lives of two boys, both of whom are misfits. Arbor (Conner Chapman) cannot fit in to high school life, and prefers to spend his time collecting scrap metal to help his impoverished family. His friend Swifty (Shaun Thomas) is emotionally softer, but proves brilliant at dealing with the prize horse of local dealer Kitten (Sean Gilder). With its washed-out colors and lengthy shots focusing on a grim post-industrial landscape, Clio Barnard's film looks at life on the margins, where families quite literally have to sell everything in order to survive. Despite their hardships, Arbor and Swifty forge a close friendship - so close, in fact, that we are both shocked and moved when tragedy strikes at the end of the film. THE SELFISH GIANT has strong links to Ken Loach's KES in its portrayal of contemporary working-class culture. The dialog is harsh and uncompromising, while the two central performances are memorable. There are certain rough edges - Gilder's Kitten comes across as rather two-dimensional, while his wife Mary (Lorraine Ashbourne) is almost too good to be true - but the film is definitely worth watching more than once.

In the Giant's garden in Oscar Wilde's children's story The Selfish Giant, it is always winter. Having built a wall to keep children from playing in his garden, there are no longer any peach trees, flowers, or birds, only perpetual hail and snow. Spring has forgotten this garden as it also seems to have forgotten the industrial town of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England, the setting for Clio Barnard's authentic and visceral The Selfish Giant. Nominated for a BAFTA award for Best British Film of 2013, The Selfish Giant is in the tradition of Ken Loach, Shane Meadows and others, films of social realism that show the world there is more to merry old England than Stratford-on-Avon and Westminster Abbey.

Though the film is about economic and social dysfunction, it is not all grim. Even in the metallic gray of the rotting town as captured by cinematographer Mike Eley, scenes of horses grazing in a tranquil field, oblivious to the surrounding train tracks and power lines, add a touch of timeless beauty. The real standout, however, are the remarkably convincing performances of Arbor (Conner Chapman) and Swifty (Shaun Thomas), 13-year-old best friends whose connection is born out of their desperate need for affection. Arbor, a pint-sized, hyperactive, sharp-tongued ADHD sufferer, lives with his mother (Rebecca Manley) and older brother (Elliott Tittensor) who sells his A.D.H.D. medication to pay off his drug debts. His father is nowhere to be seen.

"They sleep on the living room sofas but are better off than Swifty who lives with his eight siblings in a home lacking in the means to support them. Swifty's mother played by Siobhan Finneran, is caring, though she is intimidated by her overbearing husband (Steve Evets) who supports the family by renting furniture from discount stores and selling them for cash at inflated prices." Struggling to keep his aggressive behavior in check, Arbor relies on the heavy-set Swifty, a kinder gentler soul with a love for horses to calm him down. Banned from school as a result of fighting to defend themselves against bullies, the boys use a horse and cart to scavenge scrap metal, pots and pans, as well as copper cabling from telecom, railway, and power utilities.

To earn money to help support their families, they sell the scrap to an exploitative but fatherly local junk dealer (Sean Gilder), incongruously called Kitten but given to bursts of anger. In one of the visual highlights of the film, an illegal harness drag race is run on a major highway with serious money at stake. Recognizing Swifty's way with horses, Kitten offers to let him ride one of his horses in the next race. Feeling his friend drifting away from him, Arbor concocts a potentially lucrative plan to steal or collect electrical power cables, but the adventure leads to unforeseen consequences. Much of the dialogue without subtitles is indecipherable due to the heavy Yorkshire accents, but consists mostly of non-stop swearing anyway.

What does come through loud and clear, however, without the need for subtitles is the closeness of the boys' friendship. Although they have different temperaments, they are connected by a struggle for survival and a drive to preserve whatever joy is left in their childhood. There are definitely economic and political overtones in The Selfish Giant, yet it is not about politics or even selfishness, in spite of the title. It is a film with a human element at its core and we care about the characters as Barnard obviously does as well. According to the director, the film "is about what we have lost…and what we need to value and hold on to." It is also a film about the resilience of two boys determined to avoid becoming objects like the discarded scrap they collect.

It is just over a decade ago that by chance I watched Clio Barnard's first short film Lambeth Marsh; by intention or by chance since then I have seen her other works although I was a little late coming to The Selfish Giant. Although I had some problems with her early shorts, her last film and previous short both were very strong and I felt sure she could continue in that vein. As a story teller she delivers really well here with a film that is savaging depressing but yet realistic and convincing. The plot sees two boys, the fast-talking Arbor and the slower but kinder Swifty; the two are friends and have in common that their home lives are a mess with chaos and poverty being common themes. Expelled from school for yet another fight, Arbor leads the two to get into the market for recovered tat – with stolen copper cabling being a particularly lucrative line of business. As they deal with scrap merchant Kitten, Arbor aspires to his money while Swifty shows a natural aptitude towards Diesel, the yard horse that Kitten also races.

The basic story here doesn't exactly rip along and although it does have some bigger moments and revelations, it is very much about putting us into this world and letting us experience it. This is very much in the traditional mould of British kitchen-sink drama, although in this film if there was a traditional kitchen sink, no doubt Arbor would have had it down the tatters with half a chance. This world is one of few options where everyone is out for themselves and characters stripping metal like Bubs in The Wire, although here it is to just pay the installments for a sofa (which has already been sold on to get cash). The story makes this world convincing and depressing although at the same time it does not allow us to be turned off by the characters. This is quite the feat because in the real world the sight of Arbor and Swifty coming would have you keeping an eye on your car and assuming the worst till they are gone. It is to the film's credit that here we do not dislike them although we hate their circumstance. The impact of poverty and their "survival" home life is brutally portrayed and we do care for these ratty broken characters throughout the film.

The downside of the approach of the film is that I didn't think that we got a particularly strong ending so much as just let life go on, such as it is; other than this though the film is as engaging as it is bleak. The greatest part of the film is that the two child actors are great. I hope Chapman is not like this in real life but he utterly convinces as a child brought up in the world of swearing impatience and need. He grabs the attention but Thomas is equally good as a more sensitive boy who frankly isn't cut out for this place and he brings out his tiredness mostly as well as lighting up well whenever kindness is his to give or interest in him is expressed. The adult supporting cast are roundly good too, but these two are the whole film. Barnard's camera mixes distant still shots through fog and more a mobile camera moving in and around the characters in a way that puts us right in the middle of the action.

It is a very accomplished film but please don't make the mistake of assuming that because it is praised that it must be a "good" watch, because it is really a very difficult one. The bleakness and realism of this world is relentless and the nature of telling puts us right in the middle of it while the fine performances make us feel for the characters while hating their situation. It is a very tough piece of British social realism, but it is still a very well made film with it.

The Selfish Giant shows basically how capitalism works: not by making an academic movie with statistical figures, but by telling the highly capturing dramatic story of two teenagers in an English community who need to collect scrap to make ends meet.

They are no longer motivated in studying, because the bills need to be payed by the end of the month. At school they are expelled because of their frustrated behavior. Their family is in ruin due to the stress caused by not earning enough money.

In their quest for scrap they see how the best thief's also gain the most money. So eventually they turn to criminal behavior. Not by choice, but by necessity. Making money becomes separated from doing 'the right thing' to do.

The director does a good job not telling this as a straight forward moral tale, nor using sentimental 'tricks', nor trying to pretend that all ends well. But telling it as an illustration on a human level in an ordinary community where the downside of our economic model is not theory but reality.

This is a movie that only plays on one note - depressing. Unfortunately you never really care about any of the characters in this very well acted little film. Indeed it is extremely well executed poverty porn.

I saw The Selfish Giant with a date who dragged me along - so yes I had very low expectations. Since I don't want to spoil the rather predictable plot ending I will not get into all the details; however, my date fell asleep by the end of the movie.

There is something in British society that seems to draw audiences and film makers to making these extremely bleak movies - perhaps it is easier to sit on a movie seat or a sofa than to actually go 'slumming' - not sure.

A story of dependence, damage and desperation, told with grit and grimy frankness. It's also a portrait of friendship born of need and emptiness, on the road to nowhere. The tone of documentary accuracy makes the film even darker.

Much of the movie is hard to bear, yet it never drags, thanks to the momentum that writer and director Clio Barnard finds in the fable, and, above all, to the energy that she unleashes in her young leads, Conner Chapman and Shaun Thomas.

The first great fiction film to be released in 2014, Clio Barnard's second feature, "The Selfish Giant," is breathtakingly assured, ruggedly beautiful, moving and justifiably tragic.

The Selfish Giant is in line with the purest British tradition of social cinema à la Ken Loach, relying on classical, overused yet still striking, themes such as poverty, unemployment and the social link.

But while the tireless Englishman manages to create a story around those themes and to (relatively) renew himself, Clio Barnard's approach remains very primary. The plot lacks grip and stakes, we've seen the situations a million times before, the characters can't be more typical and ultimately the scenario doesn't offer anything that hasn't been tackled, often in a better way, in other productions. Basically, every characteristic of the genre is excessively emphasized which sometimes gives the impression to be watching a parody.

However, the story still does the trick because it is sincere and the good direction coupled with good acting make The Selfish Giant an above average movie yet too banal to really stand out in a saturated genre.

I have to confess I have a 'soft spot' for realist British drama and any film featuring scrapyards and neglected locations nearly always gets a high rating for me.

Having seen Clio Barnard's previous film 'The Arbor' a couple of years back, I was curious to see her next feature and it's well worth the price of admission. Her style and subject matter here remind me of Andrea Arnold's 'Fish Tank' and also a little of Rufus Norris's dysfunctional family in 'Broken', both of which were high on my score sheet.

The two young leads are outstanding, even if their strong northern accents are sometimes hard to follow for me, a southerner, and the portrayal of exclusion, its consequences and repercussions is handled brilliantly by the film makers as you are immersed in their world for what feels far longer than the 90 minutes running time.

See it and appreciate that British drama is alive and kicking. I look forward to her next project.

This is how many people in northern England speak, fast, poorly articulated and heavily accented. All the characters, especially the 2 main boys, behaved and spoke in a very natural and authentic way but if ever a film needed subtitles, this is it. Even if you have some exposure to northern England accents, it is a challenge to hear and understand more than half the words, of which many are the f-word. Perhaps just enough to follow the story. Someone living in, say, Pakistan or Texas, or has English as a second language, has no chance of following the dialogue. Which is a pity because there is a worthwhile story here, although it has nothing to do with Oscar Wilde's short fairy tale. (So why the title?). The bleakness and desolation of the story and the setting are reinforced by the muted, washed-out colours, no bright colours, filmed with a sort of grey filter that made it a semi-black and white film. Indeed, if it had been filmed in black and white, nothing would have been lost.

Arbor lives on the fringes of society, barely present as his school, drifting in and out of his home, and already embroiled in petty crime before reaching his teens. He has ambitions in scrap which brings him into the sphere of Kitten, a man whose personality is fiercely at odds with his moniker.

Barnard's Ken Loach and Andrea Arnold influences are all too evident. The triumphs are the performances from the child actors, Connor Chapman all raw energy as the feral Arbor, and Shaun Thomas as vulnerable Swifty give genuinely moving performances. Unfortunately, all this takes second stage to an unrelentingly shouty, snarly, foul-mouthed depiction of the underclass. The characters are probably not based on Barnard's lived experience: depressingly, they seem to owe more to the lurid pages of The Daily Mail. Three women appear in the story - Arbor's mother, Swifty's mother and Kitten's wife, and seem to blend into each other in their put-upon world-weariness. The men are similarly indistinguishable in their constant provocations. There is no tenderness, no quiet affection, to break this monotony of misery. This is problematic because when Kitten takes the film's climactic act upon himself, it is a character trait completely inauthentic to everything we have seen of this man beforehand.

Lynne Ramsay in 'Ratcatcher' and Paddy Considine in 'Tyrannosaur' show there is nuanced storytelling to be mined in Broken Britain. This film tries too hard to wear Ken Loach's clothes, but lacks the compassion of a 'Kes'. Disingenuous and unconvincing.

A British indie much in the same vein of standout examples like Fish Tank, Tyrannosaur and in many respects This Is England, Clio Barnard's small budget acting driven piece is also much like these films not something to watch if you are in the need of a cheer up, but is an impressively constructed, scripted and acted piece that despite showing it's hand too early, provides a frank, honest and raw look at the lives of childhood friends Arbor and Swifty.

To say that Arbor and Swifty are underprivileged would be an understatement, for these children are very much the products of their environment that disallows them to focus on being a child. Arbor played by the often great Conner Chapman is an angry boy, the boy at school that is a ticking time bomb of violence and attitude and a leader to the more mellow and slow Swifty played by the also quite great Shaun Thomas. As a team, Arbor and Swifty are a mismatched pair, Arbor a part of a divorced parent team and Swifty a member of a large "pikey" like family that he clearly feels responsible for, but the two work together gathering scrap and products to try and make a dollar and help support their lives as school goes on the backburner. Arbor and Swifty's plight may seem like a slight journey yet the direction of Barnard is a steady one that leads to many a touching moment.

The Selfish Giant is at its core a tale of friendship and a tale of survival in a sad state of affairs for these boys and it's a tale that feels sadly believable. With a great eye for the grimy detail of the world these boys live in (again hearkening back to these other fine U.K films of the similar vein) Barnard captures this life of the boys fantastically from the fog strewn paddocks, the telephone tower laden lands or the rundown housing complexes, the world feels authentic and the characters relatable. The boy's dealings with scrap metal owner and horse enthusiast Kitten also feels real in a place where everyone is looking to rip off everyone and a child doing a man's job is nothing to baulk at.

With a pace that is at times awkwardly played out and with a story that sadly ends up exactly how it looks likely to, The Selfish Giant is held back slightly by its own doings but is popped up to a high standing thanks to some great young actors, a heartfelt script and a fine directional turn from the to watch with interest Barnard. Not a movie to bring a smile to your face, but a movie that is another fine showcase for the impressive work many budding British filmmakers are producing that are all types of authentic and true.

3 and a half stripped wires out of 5

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The two leads, as unknowns, are superb, as are all the child actors in this.

Of the adults it is clearly led by the performance of the three lead female actors (four: I should include the school receptionist). But this film has such an almost documentary feel about it you can forgive any of the acting that may feel a little strained or unnatural (perhaps because of a lacking in the script?).

There are some wonderfully emotionally funny scenes equally matched by ones of sadness. People often use words such as grim, depressing or bleak. But this is Britain as it is; which is about looking for the humour and humanity beyond the circumstance of living. If you haven't been in Britain, then you might be forgiven, if you live here then maybe you have been sheltered: This is really how life can be; but it is far more a story about a boy's journey to manhood.

As a statement on modern society then it speaks volumes to say that nothing is different now as from when it's 60's counterpart Kes was made, or for that matter in anytime in our history.

But for me it won on all levels for it's such strong sense of humanity, on Arbor's journey of discovery, which was lacking, somewhat, in Kes.

A tale of misery set in a working class, poverty-stricken area of the UK.

Films like "The Selfish Giant" are important, I think, because they make the audience aware of just how grim life is for certain people living in the world, but who fly under the radar of our popular media and so never get exposure. We know how miserable things are in parts of Africa because a big Ebola outbreak makes headlines; or how miserable people in parts of the Middle East are because terrorist groups carry out sensational, news-grabbing acts. But no one is ever talking about how miserable certain areas of the UK (or anywhere else for that matter) are because the kind of misery and poverty that exists there is too mundane to catch anyone's interest.

"The Selfish Giant" is about two young boys, both outcasts to a certain extent, who only manage to weather their bleak existence because of their shared friendship. The movie is an examination of two different personality types -- one hot-tempered and angry, the other sensitive and soft -- and the possibility either of them has for making it in their environment. It's a deeply sad and depressing film, because we know neither of these boys really has a chance to escape their worlds and do anything much with their lives. The writer/director tries to scrape together a somewhat hopeful ending, but it's so meagre and comes after so much awfulness that it feels more like an obligatory apology for making us sit through something so grim.

I liked the filmmaking of "The Selfish Giant," but would never want to sit through it again.

Grade: A-

Every once and awhile a movie comes along and rattles your core. It doesn't use graphics or fantasia - just raw human grit.

It picks you up gently, rising you ever higher. You peer from this mountainous peak of mortal avidity as you gaze upon the truth that which it shows with such grotesque purity. You then realize you're helpless at such a height - as if suddenly finding yourself uncomfortably aware of the precarious position you're in as your heart, your mind, and your soul yields to its every whim; forcing you to confront the harsh reality that is life.

In the midst of the aftermath, you emerge anew, humbled, adapted - for one more jaunt into the fray.

This my friends, is one of those movies.

Painfully truthful social realism at its most painful and fragile form . Fully brilliant and abstract genius. When that little is so much and when that is large so little - what's a few pounds extra in Bradford's poorest and vulnerable areas really worth? Is it worth a few scrape? A few broken bones? Some blood? Someone's life?

Last time I saw something like this incredibly vulnerable and genuine was 2011 in Warp X-film Tyrannosaur, also a British film that plague one's mind with soiled hyper-realistic social realism. But regarding genuineness in every single small frame, The Selfish Giant is even better.

It hurts a little extra in the chest, a lump is in my throat - oh, this was a movie! I thought I was teleported to Bradford. I'm sold , take my extra pounds, I do not care - you have tortured me enough.

The spectacle is so incredible that I do not for a second think of the fictional character that is playing in front of my eyes.

What hurts most is that I can not give the movie or the play, or motion pictures, more than a 7/10, that is a little hard, but that's all I can spare when I put the film in context to other movies I rated.

I saw this film at the Leiden film festival (LIFF) 2013. Two main characters Arbor (13 years old) and Swifty (15 years old), both played by unexperienced actors, make this movie rise above the story that in itself is not that spectacular, though the authors certainly intended it as social commentary. The working class environment, the poor neighborhood, the shady business where these two boys get themselves involved in, many people living together in small houses, and so on, it all provides for the perfect context to explain why these people do what they do. The only silver lining in this story is that Swifty proves to Kitten that he has his way with horses, and thus is allowed to prepare his best horse for the races. The remainder is depressing all over, but nevertheless a must-see, if only to observe a way of living that is insufficiently covered in newspapers and magazines.

I've seen two Clio Barnard films now - The Selfish Giant and Dark River. Both set in beautifully bleak Yorkshire and both tinged with poverty and desperation. Clio could well be Ken Loach's natural successor. I've read somewhere that the Selfish Giant is Ken Loach without the humour. I couldn't disagree more. I found myself laughing out loud on numerous occasions as Arbor and Swifty do everything they can to overcome the grinding poverty they and their families find themselves enduring. The two young actors are excellent at portraying Arbor - a somewhat troubled yet resourceful lad with behavioural issues; and Swifty, his more sensible but ferociously loyal friend. They start with petty theft of copper wiring, but this leads to, almost inevitably, a thirst for bigger things. Clio Barnard is definitely one to watch. 7.5 out of ten

First off, this is one of THOSE movies I hate for stringing me along. It had the decent reviews and started out neither too good or bad. It is always on the verge of getting better but... it never improves. These types of movies do succeed in the development of suspense. Unfortunately there is never any tension of the dramatic type.

It starts out with the "bad influence"? I'm not sure if I was supposed to hate this character as much as I did. This kid had no redeeming qualities at all. In real life, everyone had something going for them. The rest of the characters are presented as negative and/or ineffectual. I really only liked the horse and thought the "nice" kid was "OK". The ended and it hadn't taught me anything. Obviously I am disappointed by this film. It was like being stuck in limbo with a bunch of people I didn't like. Even more disappointing is the IMDb score of 7.5. I doubt I would have viewed this title if not for the reviews. They now seem so misleading that I felt the need to log on and add my two cents.

Very much enjoyed this, from a film point of view of course given the dark and saddening tone of the story.

'The Selfish Giant' is a gritty drama involving two kids who get mixed up in the wrong world. At the beginning I was worried it was going to turn into a cliché-filled, overly stereotypical tale of less well-off families. It does in small doses, but feels legitimate for the majority.

Cast-wise it isn't amazing, though it's impossible not to give praise to youngsters Conner Chapman (Arbor) and Shaun Thomas (Swiftly) as they give very respectable performances, especially when taking into account the tricky nature of role and premise. Sean Gilder is good as Kitten, while some of the others are solid enough.

It's both impactful and heartbreaking, especially across the third act. Recommended viewing.