Maxine Peake (appearing in person at Mostly British) kills as they say in the comedy trade, playing the title character with unflinching boldness and grit that absolutely mesmerizes. As a female standup comic trying to make it in the northern working men’s clubs of the 70s, she confronts the unrelenting sexism and violence surrounding working class women in Northern England. Through a collage of flashbacks, we learn how resilience was knocked into her by an abusive father, husband, and broken alcoholic mother. Funny Cow stands a vibrant, firebrand dressed in red with corkscrew blonde hair and bright red lips, using comedy as her lifeline, amid a dreary, harsh, grimy cityscape. She has a fur coat and fancy sports car for comfort but they can’t erase the deep hurt in her soul. This film makes us uncomfortable. We may not laugh but we will think. Remember Archie Rice in The Entertainer – he was “dead behind the eyes”. Funny Cow calls herself “a monster behind the eyes”.  But no, she is just trying to survive and we applaud her for it. Miss Peake and board member Tony Broadbent will introduce the film and participate in a Q & A following the screening.  

2017 UK (92 mins)

GUEST OF HONOR:  MAXINE PEAKE
English actress Maxine Peake will join us at the festival with two of her new films, which she will introduce and participate in a Q & A following the screenings. She stars in “Peterloo,” as the mother of a young British conscript in this story of the infamous 1819 massacre at Peterloo. In “Funny Cow” she plays a female comic attempting in the 1970s to find a place in England’s comedy circuit. The Guardian wrote of her performance “Peake rises magnificently to the challenge of the role, her face flickering between a practical smile and a silent scream.” She is a regular on the Hulu show “The Bisexual” and is known in the UK for lead roles in the TV series “Dinnerladies” and “Shameless.” She has also appeared in “Black Mirror” and the movie “The Theory of Everything.” Her stage work includes the title characters in “Hamlet” and “Miss Julie” and as Blanche in “A Streetcar Named Desire,” a performance The Guardian described as “exquisite” and “breathtaking.”

This engrossing coming-of-age thriller was shot in the little leafy town of Pemberton in Western Australia. Teenager Charlie Bucktin, shy and bookish, is drawn into the chaotic world of Jasper Jones, a mixed-race Aboriginal outcast who comes to him for help.  The twists and turns include a dead body, race and class divisions, puppy love and the power of doing the right thing. The young actors, Levi Miller and Aaron McGrath, are convincing and Toni Colette turns in a gutsy, gritty performance as Charlie’s unhappy mother.  Hugo Weaving looms large as the town’s outsider. Set in the late 1960s in the fictional town of Corrigan, the film reminds us of how social mores were rapidly changing, even in remote places. It was adapted from Craig Silvey’s acclaimed young adult novel that’s been called the Australian “To Kill a Mockingbird.’’

Australia, 2017 (101 minutes)

Directed by Carlos Marques-Marcet, this is a romantic comedy with a difference. No home comforts or soft lights, but a cramped London canal boat which offers a delightful visual backdrop and setting for the story. The central lesbian couple who live on the boat face a conflict which challenges their visions for the future. Eva, a salsa teacher, desperately wants to have a child, while Kat, her girlfriend, is not keen. Enter Roger, Kat’s dear Spanish friend, who is enlisted as the sperm donor and unexpectedly for a lothario, warms to the idea of fatherhood. What makes the film so charming is the lively, loving banter between the trio, enlivened by wine and laughter. But the underlying emotional turmoil threatens to end in heartbreak and unravel their free-spirited aspirations. Playing mother and daughter are Geraldine Chaplin and Oona Chaplin—Charlie Chaplin’s daughter and granddaughter.

UK 2017 (113 minutes)

Warring stepbrothers compete for the affections of a worldly Irish singer on the road from Shetland to Glasgow in a fearlessly funny, bold and beautiful drama with tremendous energy and personality. Lushly photographed, sexy, cool, anarchic and honest, with a trio of charismatic young actors at the center, Welsh-born writer-director-punk musician Philip John’s first feature is a simply drawn, but intricately thought out right-of-passage film that recalls the quirky nuance of Bill Forsyth and the rock-n-roll charge of Danny Boyle. Winner Best Film Newport Beach Film Festival.

UK/Ireland 2016 (93 minutes)

Sponsored by Bruce Lymbum

Gemma Atherton (“Made in Dagenham”) brings her fierce intelligence to this story of a depressed housewife in a London suburb who is suffocating in her quiet life. The film captures the monotony of suburbia where the wife’s only rewards appear to be good behavior from her children and an encouraging word from her self-absorbed husband, chillingly played by Dominic Cooper (“Mamma Mia!). But no one in her house seems to acknowledge her plight, or to care. She tries making a bold move to reclaim her life, but not in the way one might expect. The situation is relatable and both leads are at the top of their game.

UK 2018 115 minutes

To understand The Beatles—and what made John Lennon the man he was—you have to understand Liverpool, the city that gave birth to Lennon and The Fab Four. Director Roger Appleton’s documentary is a Liverpool focused retrospective on the early life and times—and traumatic events—that went to shape Lennon’s complex personality and influence his later songs and music. It reveals—with painful candor—how Lennon was an “outsider” from birth and how it impacted his schooldays and teenage years. And how it ultimately drove him to form his first group, The Quarrymen, then led to his early embrace of rock ‘n’ roll and his meeting with fellow rock ‘n’ roll mad Paul McCartney. Friends and contemporaries give new and very telling details about…the man we’ve known for all these years. Introduced by Tony Broadbent, author of the guidebook “’From Be-Bop-a-Lula’ to ‘Beatlemania’- The Beatles Early years in Liverpool. Hamburg and London

UK  2018 93 minutes

“Edie,” a coming of age story, skips past adolescence and adulthood and begins when title character Edie Moore is in her 80s. A dissatisfied wife and caretaker, soon to be widowed, she appears to be at loose ends. Her daughter, seeing only a frail, disgruntled old woman, wants to put her in a home.  But a postcard and a long-ago promise changes the story for Edie, played by Sheila Hancock with both great emotional range and enviable physical gifts. Fulfilling a lifelong dream, Edie runs away to the Scottish Highlands to climb Mount Suilven, the most enigmatic mountain in North West Scotland.  On the way she teams up with a brash young mountaineering guide. The scenery will make you swoon as will Hancock’s physical prowess (no stunt double was used). UK 2017 (102 minutes)

Sponsored by Bruce Lymburn