I do make-up
Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 50 Movies of 2020...
#6 : Rocks
A terrific British feature about kids at secondary school that wears its multiculturalism on its sleeve. Bukky Bakray gives a tremendous performance as a teenager (nicknamed “Rocks”) who has to look after her brother when her single mother finds herself increasingly unable to.
Another one that was on the list to watch - this one was probably top of the list of "films I didn't manage to watch but wanted to" because I've heard some great things about it. And it's our third female-heavy film in a row - won't someone give the poor men a chance?!?
As the description above states, the film follows Rocks as she looks after her brother - but not quite "as her mum finds herself increasingly unable to", since her mum is in one scene at the beginning and then disappears. And things get pretty tricky for them for that point on - heartbreakingly so at times with the struggle to demonstrate her independence proving too much for her, whilst she ignores/avoids offers of help. All the while, you're hoping and hoping for a glimmer of something good to happen for her but you're not entirely sure where it's going to come from. And obviously I'm not going to tel you if it does happen either.
The Guardian is most definitely not wrong when it says it wears its multiculturism on its sleeve - and on every other part of its wardrobe as well. Some of the scenes felt specifically included merely to demonstrate this but it would be a harsh critic that complained about that - particularly a white, middle-aged, straight critic such as myself.
It felt (to me, at least) to be a film full of natural performances. My daughters haven't quite had the same life experiences but there was still a lot I recognised there - the joy, the laughter, the nonsense, the photos (SO MANY PHOTOS!!), the arguments and the worries. There are lots of aspects to this - including the script, the direction and the performances and they all come together very nicely. All the girls put in strong performances, but Bukky Bakray definitely deserves all the plaudits she got for a terrific effort on her part. Her relationship with her brother, Emmanuel (played by D’angelou Osei Kissiedu) is very well done - a tenderness matched with her trying to be the grown-up, without really knowing how to be.
This is the third film in a row from a female director - Sarah Gavron has more experience than either of the previous two and in a lot of ways it shows because this is a less conspicuously "directed" film. And yes, that's partly to do with the story but also there's less requirement for her to make a statement - and I also suspect (from a position of very limited knowledge) that there's an awful lot of hard work involved making things look so easy and natural (apparently the cast were heavily involved in shaping the dialogue).
There was a lot to admire about the film but, maybe because I'm a father, I found it all a bit too harrowing at times to say I completely enjoyed it - I was just emotionally drained at times. But when it does show us some joy or some hope, it's like the sun's come out from behind the clouds and is just lovely. And as a complete package, I've got no problems in saying it's a great film and well worth a watch - and it's certainly less grim than other slices of social realism we've seen on this list.
At the time of writing, the film is available to watch on Netflix. It's not one of their films though, so it won't be there forever - like the previous film, it's a Film4/BFI production and they've totally spoiled us with both of them.
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