Depressing tour through the lower reaches of Merrie Olde England. The focus is on one family living in a council estate (low-income public housing). The matriarch wrote a popular play in 1980 which was turned into a film (Rita, Sue and Bob Too) but she was a drunken bum and her eldest daughter, born of her union with a Paki, ends up having a horrible life. She is the main subject of the film.
The technique used here was fresh. Actual interviews were lip-synched by actors...who were easier on the eyes than the real people. The story was told in jumbled-up time. This helped to maintain interest...for a time. But the problem was that, minor details aside, life stories of the extreme lower class have a monotonous sameness to them. In the immortal words of Spiro Agnew...if you've seen one slum you've seen them all.
Once I had it sorted out it became a mego. Too bad. Kudos for the effort but this paled beside last year's Fish Tank.
5
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