Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Bereamic Awesome Movie

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

lovaszi-peter Really hard to start it... Very deep and heartbreaking.It's a realistic British drama showing really detailed the current life of worker class in Bradford - north England, what is still suffering after the 1980's recession and economy collapse. I've never seen any movies putting you up close for such situations just like you can't pay your £20 bill and selling your only furniture. It focuses on the lives of two boys who are both from a large family with awful living conditions. Instead of going to school they prefer to collect scrap metal to help out their family to survive. How ridiculous is it to steal a few kilograms of metal hidden in your jacket from a scrap- dealer isn't it?Absolutely worth to watch, but on a first date. The last ten minutes are really shocking, be prepared for a long never ending catharsis.

magnuslhad 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.

runamokprods While not audacious and brave in it's style as Barnard's smashing debut "The Arbor", it explores much of the same territory – poverty in northern England. But this time Barnard uses a more neo-realist bent that recalls the films of Ken Loach, among others. And after two viewings, while I missed the wild rule-breaking she did in her first film, I felt she had made a film of gritty honest and emotional force. The story centers on two young teens (very well played by non-pros). Diminutive Arbor is hyperactive, angry, and so on the edge he can be frightening and simultaneously heartbreaking -- Arbor needs meds just to allow him to be calm enough to function. And there's Swifty, his best friend who is introvert to Arbor's extreme extrovert. Swifty is willing to go along with Arbor's schemes to a point, but he also wants to honor his mother's wish that he get an education, and try to move up and out of poverty. The two begin collecting (and sometimes stealing) scrap metal to sell to a tough local junk metal dealer, Kitten. This is a man who is capable of being almost a father figure one moment, and stomping you into the ground the next. A sort of modern Fagan, using the boys to do his bidding (although, to be fair, the boys come to him). A dark, moody and ultimately deeply disturbing film, that refuses to let us or society off lightly when it comes to kids growing up in the cycle of poverty.

Chris L 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.