markgorman

Everyone I know who has seen this magnificent independent movie has agreed that it is a work of considerable importance and merit.

It walks a very fine line between laughing at and sympathising with a disability that is often not even recognised as a disability.

Tourette's Syndrome afflicts its sufferers with tics and outbursts of inappropriate thoughts, that might not even BE THOUGHTS, but that cause the afflicted severe embarrassment, if not physical danger. Because these thoughts are usually accompanied by swearing (hence the title) and/or insults.

In the movie the central protagonist begins his journey into disability from the age of about 12 when he first goes to High School and turns from an angelic childhood into a raging ball of teenage angst, anger and most importantly, suffering, particularly at the hands of his horrified parents (masterfully played by Shirley Henderson as Mum with dad only playing a cameo as he quickly disappears from the scene) who can't or won't understand what's happened to their lovely boy, John.

This leads (inadvetantly really) to extreme emotional punishment verging on torture.

John is played by two actors. Both are outstanding. Robert Aramayo (older) and Scott Ellis Watson (younger). As John comes to terms with his disability he finds solace from a wonderful Peter Mullen who takes him under his wing as curator of a local community centre. This gives him some grounding in his life but doesn't stop scrapes and escapades along the way that often result in severe beatings when John 'insults' local youths.

It's tricky to watch, because some of the insults and curses he utters are hilarious but I kept wondering if I was laughing AT him and this made me feel uncomfortable. But it's really just great scripting and this is resolved in the final act when the real point of John's life is revealed in a series of increasingly emotional scenes.

This is a wonderful and sensitive production that nobody should miss.

Blue Lights started out in 2023 as a low budget cop drama with a twist or two. Firstly was set in a post-troubles Belfast where the tensions linger and this created scenarios that felt different and thrilling. Secondly there was a great deal of relationship-building going on in the station and on the beat between male and female officers. It offered light relief and was used in sufficient moderation to create real balance. In particular cake making Stevie and series Grace were a stand out.

It was the establishing series and was quickly welcomed back, matured, and became a must watch (which series one was too).

But it's this coming of age series - three - that has really elevated the programme from fresh and a bit different to thrilling, gripping and with seriously good acting chops, coupled with edge of the seat story telling. The last three episodes are the best yet in a tale about drug fuelled gangland in-fighting which, on several occasions, has serous implications for the 'Peelers' from the station we've grown to love. It's all further elevated by the intervention of the special forces who, like in all good cop dramas, see themselves as superior to the ordinary peeler on the beat.

Grace and Stevie take centre stage, especially Grace, and we learn new things about her as she helps a violated schoolgirl on her journey to expose the privileged users of Belfast's fancy members club that attracts the good and the great, alongside the city's filth (and I don't mean police by that adjective).

This story, in particular, is the heartbeat of the whole series and is superbly told and delivered.

Co head writers Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson have found a great balance between pathos, horror and humour with naturalistic and believable scripting that acknowledges the language of the street and its earthiness without straying into the ludicrous over the top and gratuitous language that so marred Netflix hit, Department Q.

It's as good as police procedurals have got since Happy Valley and that's because all the important things are there. Brilliant central performances, great storytelling, unfamiliar surroundings and a bold mix of drama and a splattering of humour to balance it out.

Bravo.

I bore people with my love of Paul Thomas Anderson (PTA).

I have been stuck on him since Magnolia and have loved every single one of his movies since.

Here's my ranking, including this movie.

There Will Be Blood

Magnolia

Punch Drunk Love

One Battle after Another

The Master

Phantom Thread

Licorice Pizza

Boogie Nights

Hard Eight

Inherent Vice

For a while Magnolia was my all time favourite movie, but I think it has creaked a little with age and I didn't enjoy There Will Be Blood initially but it has risen, through time, up his ranks.

The point of this laborious intro is that PTA is now my all time favourite director (yes that includes Kubrick, Scorsese, Cimino, Spielberg and Yorgos) but his now significant canon of work has few failures (Inherent Vice chiefly - ironically a Thomas Pynchon based script so I may go back to it) and many absolute bangers.

The other key point is that his range is spectacular.

Like all great directors he has a stable. Jonny Greenwood, Phillip Seymour Hoffman RIP (and his son) at the fore of this. And we can see him attracting bigger and bigger stars as his career flourishes. He's not old so he easily has another 5 or 6 great movies in him. He's also a great writer. Clearly so is Thomas Pynchon. Me and my fellow viewers guffawed throughout.

In this great film he directs Leonardo Di Caprio and Sean Penn to Oscars (I feel sure) both are utterly magnificent in rabid performances. Penn a psycho, Di Caprio a comedian of the highest order.

Benicio Del Torro is the sort of calming influence in a movie that could run away to madness at any moment, but he is the zen karate guy that teaches Di Caprio's daughter how to fend for herself. He's the guy actually. Just great.

It's a film profoundly about the racism that Trump has created in America. The fascist state that he has built and that pervades the police and the military, most especially at the Mexican border. PTA pulls no punches in illustrating a dystopian present (never mind future) but he does it with a fantastic swagger, with irony, with glee at times. But we always know that America is losing the plot.

This is a dark comedy. PTA is leaving no-one in any doubt that racism absolutely rules America today.

Trump won't like the misogyny that it criticises, or the homophobia.

Two remarkable performances ground this. An unrecognisable Sean Penn (Oscar winning) and a hilarious, gleeful mature performance by Di Caprio (Oscar winning). Just stunning. His best since "Wolf of Wall Street".

The women are important too. It has shades of Tarantino at times but PTA makes Teyana Taylor as Perfidy MAGNIFICENT and Chase Infiniti (silly name) is really great as Willa.

The movie isn't perfect. It has time shift leaps that don't fully make sense. And the aging is debatable. But, who cares. This is great movie-making and a wonderful way to spend nearly three hours glued to a screen.

Epic. Hilarious. Clever. Just, you know, PTA at work.