birdo71

En-point slice of teen angst from the Inbetweeners alumni Sam Bird has you snorting into your popcorn, as you recognise the tête-à-tête between mother and son from the graphic novel and how it reflects with near-100% accuracy to the film. Supporting the brilliant Earl Cave and Monica Dolan are star turns by Earth Mother-type Tamsin Greig and the amazing Elliot Speller-Gillott as Ky, Daniel's best mate and scene stealer. Ky's lines are few, but boy, do they are delivered with precision cadence, pitch and gravitas. Cinematography must get a mention, with brilliant long shots - the ice cream van - and medium shots - the beach walk scene, in the library. Cave, playing an angry, sullen younger teen, displays the makings of a brilliant interpreter of mood, timing, and movement. I'd say up there with Brad Renfro, who also underplayed his role of Josh in Ghost World - another graphic novel adaption. A nugget of a film to cherish.

In 2016 , the Tom Michell book Penguin Lessons was warmly received, being, amongst other things, a BBC Radio 2 Book Club title. I loved the book as it reflected how we react to man's inhumanity to animals (our New Zealand town rescued 364 oiled penguins in 2011). The film takes a few liberties with the book, adding characters and some character's backstories. It also adds year's to the main character's life. Yet Coogan is still ideal as Michell, adding a certain gravitas to the proceedings. Other highlights of the film are the cinematography, Spain standing in for Argentina, and the students. The well-trained Magellan Penguin also gets most of the laughs. Going by the moniker Juan Salvador, we see the bird become a pseudo- therapist for lonely students, staff, tutors and principals of the upper class Argentinian school. Obviously you can not keep wild penguins as pets, but the real Juan Salvador unwittingly extended the sanity of many human lives, was cherished and looked after, and whilst wasn't in a zoo, perhaps lived out the rest of his life in a more valuable locale than had he been placed in a zoo. Michell also videoed footage of Juan Salvador at the school in the 70s the results can be found on YouTube.