★★★★ - THE POST
- Chuck Chuck Baby is this week's unexpected treat -
"Hey Graeme, what are you reviewing this week?"
"It's a Welsh lesbian musical ... set on a chicken farm."
It's no wonder my friends find me impossible to take seriously, when I tell them how I spend my days. And yet, I love what I do. And, I've long realised that some of the best and most enjoyable films I see, are the ones I wouldn't have bothered with if I didn't have to turn up to watch them for work.
Chuck Chuck Baby is a film from writer and director Janis Pugh. As far as I can tell, Pugh has only a few short films and experimental projects on her CV, and nothing much in the last 10 years. But I reckon she's knocked it out of the park.
The film is set in an unnamed estate in a coastal town in the north of Wales. The idea of mechanisation must have been slow to arrive in the area, as our hero Helen apparently washes chickens and then stuffs them into plastic bags for a living. But, like her workmates, Helen also spends a lot of her day yarning, and then bursting into song to accompany some vintage banger on the local radio station.
At home, life is pretty grim. Helen's ex husband Gary lives next door with his new partner and baby. But Helen is still the live-in help for Gary's elderly mum, who is noisily dying from a collapsed lung in between bouts of imparting morsels of love and wisdom to Helen, who she adores.
Clearly, something drastic has to happen if Helen's life is going to break out of this rut and we are going to have a film to watch. And that something arrives in the form of Joanne, Helen's school-yard crush, who turns up driving a very natty Triumph convertible but is beset by demons of her own. Most of which relate to her teenage years in this cloistered and conservative wee town.
You know how this is going to play, and I don't reckon it's a spoiler to tell you everything turns out alright for Helen and Joanne in the end. All that matters is how much fun we can have getting to the foregone conclusion - and the answer is "a lot".
In the leads, Louise Brealey (Sherlock) and Annabel Scholey (Walking on Sunshine) as Helen and Jo are both terrific, dialing in pitch-perfect work that elevates the slender story into something quite deft and engaging. Around those two, a chorus of co-workers are all good company, and the Irish theatre veteran Sorcha Cusack (Snatch) is superb as the ailing Gwen.
In a tough week, Chuck Chuck Baby was an unexpected hoot of a film. Go and have a look.
- Graeme Tuckett, THE POST
Chuck Chuck Baby is now playing at Light House Cinema!