So bloody sick...


I'm so bloody sick and tired of these kitchen sink-style Alan Clarke rip-off films used to illustrate just how depressing growing up in working class Britain 'really is'. People need to do something a bit different rather than talk about "t' workers" and convey them as ordinary humans who live *beep* lives but have hearts of gold.

Semi-autobiographical account of a self-righteous actress presuming to think that we should give a monkeys about her life? I'm bored already -- Nil By Mouth, anyone???

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It's a film in its own right, you don't need to care about her life, where did you get that idea from? You're deluded.

Anyway, its on Channel 4 in ten minutes or less, so maybe you should watch it and then come back with a real viewpoint.

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Suggestions as to what they should do? I think it's like this because the sub genre demands it be like this.
But what else is there to show?
Show how glamorous living and growing up in Britian is? What kind of an audience would that attract?
9 times out of 10 it is the angle that the filmmaker takes into account.

I would agree that its a somewhat overdone concept with a very subtle poke at mr goverment, but I don't complain, it is generally a great piece of film-making, like this one on channel 4 at the moment.
It's only 10 minutes in and I can already tell by the end of it i'm going to feel a tiny bit emotionally empty. ):

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How about showing the stoic attitude of people in Britain? How about showing Britain for how it really is?

Yes it can be a depressing country but apparently that's all there is to it when we see "cutting edge drama" like this -- Shane Meadows, for instance. There's more to Britain than a seemingly endless barrage of films that convey the hopelessness of living in a country that apparently offers no escape.

A film like The Full Monty succeeded purely because it approached such a depressing subject matter (unemployment - a concept that reverberates it's echoes right now as I speak) with a degree of humour. The same with Trainspotting.

I'm a fan of the British film industry - always have been - but part of the reason the British film industry went down the toilet was because of films like this. All films like this seek to do is perpetuate the cultural stereotype that we're all miserable bastards and live in a depressingly tedious nation built on a foundation of disallusionment and boredom.

The purpose of this film was to warn us of the cracks that have formed in the social care system and make us aware that such problems exist, and that the only innocent victims in all of it are the children. Most sensible people, if not all the intelligent people who watched this film already know they exist -- we don't need some self-righteous actress to tell us they're there.

The type of people who were portrayed in this film are the type of people this film was aimed towards, which renders the film ultimately pointless because this demographic generally don't tend to watch intelligent films that deal with social issues.

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Someone find a Tardis for the OP so he can go back to the early seventies when it was all Carry On and Barbera Windsor getitng her jubblies out every week.

"Kunta Kinte... yabba dabba dabba doo"

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Of course a reserve and stoic attitude is somewhat apparent in the UK, although people have become somewhat more outward in their emotions nowadays - some people would say that is bad because it is annoying and embarassing and creates a fuss/ problems but on the other hand, its not repressive...

In terms of this film in itself though, surely it did portray certain characters in a stoical fashion - was that not apparent to you?

The purpose of the film is not to warn of cracks in the social care system - what makes you think that? Why does a film have to have a message like that?

I think you're expecting too much of the film in that sense. It is a film in its own right, on its own. It is not a political bill for reform or act of parliament. If you want to make change in the social care system, get involved, don't berate one single film on the basis that you see it as crusading for change and awareness - that is patent idiocy to view it like that.

Also, Sam Morton only wanted to make this one film. Many actors do that. She isn't self-righteous about her upbringing. The film wasn't unrelenting misery and horror...could you not enjoy its great photography (better than any I have seen in Shane Meadow's films which you mention), attention to location and atmosphere?

Lastly, you are being pompous, naive and short-sighted to assume that people who have lived in care homes, been adopted or fostered and so forth, would not watch a film like this. Get a grip.

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Since when has Shane Meadows made depressing "cutting edge drama"?

His films are comedies. Maybe you missed that.

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Wow. You're projecting your own agenda onto the film BIG TIME. You sound paranoid, obsessed with the image of Britain to (I imagine?) foreigners, and resentful that a female actress could ever make a film about her own experiences. Also ridiculously snobbish and frankly deluded when you say that 'this demographic generally don't tend to watch intelligent films that deal with social issues.' I'd say you were a troll, but somehow I get the feeling you're actually sincere about this. You, sir, are a very nasty piece of work. Go back to your bigoted, extremist corner of the internet, you should be ashamed to open your mouth in normal company.

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So you don't like somewhat depressing films? What were you expecting when you sat down to watch this? Besides, I don't think it was half as dreary as you're making out. You moan about films depicting "t' workers with hearts of gold", then in your next post praise T' Full Monty? And how does that criticism relate to The Unloved precisely? Are you confused? I am after reading your impertinent whine. No doubt if anyone made a film about your life you'd be the first to lambast it.

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I feel quite strongly that the themes in this film haven't been exploited. Had they been exploited then we'd be seeing violence. There's a long *beep* in which Lucy is standing getting undressed. The camera moves voyeuristically around her body and the viewer is forced to watch expecting to her to unveil horrific bruising but we are denied this, forcing us to question ourselves.
If this film were being trully dramatic we'd have been that social worker rape and horrifically abuse Lauren. Instead it is all manipulation and control, plenty of ambiguity.

If you look at the shots of the bedrooms, the empty clinical bathroom the shot of the boy sitting by the launderette style washing machine on his own everything is soulless. Where is the love? And the warmth?

I think the film does offer an alternative answer to our current system. With all the recent talk of reform and of instilling pedagody* within the care system you can see that Morton created a contrast when she had Lucy in the car with the young blonde social worker it is probably one of the times we see Lucy begin to open up. The social worker treats her with warmth and they talk.
This is contasted by how when they get back it is all back to paperwork and bureucracy.



*
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/catch-up#2917350
A documentary well worth watching discusses pedagody



Victory is mine!

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I was very impressed with the job Samantha Morton did with this. It was a great looking film that told its story and highlighted its issues in a mainly visual manner with limited dialogue. This film is simple really - it is about how a child becomes lost and widely ignored within society and the systems we create, systems that become more about the systems themselves than about the child and what he or she really needs. Love. That is all Lucy is seeking all the way through, to make a connection with someone and to feel loved and wanted. The cold clinical world around her only isolates her more while nobody will properly answer her most simple of questions: "Why can't I live with my mummy?" Which could easily be interpreted as: "Why doesn't anyone love me?" I found it heartbreaking stuff because I know it is true.

Films like The Unloved are not fun or happy or pleasant viewing, they don’t have happy endings. But they are important. Not all films should be escapist with pat resolutions and happy ever afters. We have an almost endless supply of those. Some films should raise social issues, ask important questions, reflect the real lives of others back at us so we can be challenged to do something about it. And we know all too well that there are thousands of children just like Lucy (or worse) all over the country with millions more all over the world. But we still need to be reminded of that. The Unloved is not a perfect film, but it is heartfelt, comes form a good place and largely achieves what it sets out to achieve.




"Well there's something you don't see everyday...unless of course you're me"

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Well, there we have the reason why I usually don't watch UK movies or TV.
And hell, if I had been a child in England, I would probably have committed suicide at age three!
I doubt that people who ship their progeny off to full-day school at age three-and-a-half really wanted them in the first place. Why breed at all? Except for the ticket out of their unfriendly "homes" and into their own (supported) apartments as pregnant 14-year old teenagers.
"Hearts of gold"? Well, only when that gold is supposed to be frozen! Harsh, rough, unfriendly people. Yes, very much like those portrayed in this ... whatever it is supposed to be or whatever purpose it is supposed to have.

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And wherever you're from is so much better and different, is it?

You seem to be rather confused about this film - "...whatever it is supposed to be or whatever purpose it is supposed to have."

If you don't know then either you didn't watch the film or you are extremely dim.

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Are you a sock puppet? I think you are, sir, I think you are...

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If you want people to take your opinions seriously maybe you should change your user name...... i gobbed at the queen...... how disrespectful is that!

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I'd understand the complaint in the OP if they were talking about Fish Tank. I thought The Unloved had a bit more to it than that...

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I was completely unaware that people in the UK were required to watch these films.

Censorship is advertising paid by the government.

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