A tale of misery set in a working class, poverty-stricken area of the UK.
Films like "The Selfish Giant" are important, I think, because they make the audience aware of just how grim life is for certain people living in the world, but who fly under the radar of our popular media and so never get exposure. We know how miserable things are in parts of Africa because a big Ebola outbreak makes headlines; or how miserable people in parts of the Middle East are because terrorist groups carry out sensational, news-grabbing acts. But no one is ever talking about how miserable certain areas of the UK (or anywhere else for that matter) are because the kind of misery and poverty that exists there is too mundane to catch anyone's interest.
"The Selfish Giant" is about two young boys, both outcasts to a certain extent, who only manage to weather their bleak existence because of their shared friendship. The movie is an examination of two different personality types -- one hot-tempered and angry, the other sensitive and soft -- and the possibility either of them has for making it in their environment. It's a deeply sad and depressing film, because we know neither of these boys really has a chance to escape their worlds and do anything much with their lives. The writer/director tries to scrape together a somewhat hopeful ending, but it's so meagre and comes after so much awfulness that it feels more like an obligatory apology for making us sit through something so grim.
I liked the filmmaking of "The Selfish Giant," but would never want to sit through it again.
Grade: A-
Films like "The Selfish Giant" are important, I think, because they make the audience aware of just how grim life is for certain people living in the world, but who fly under the radar of our popular media and so never get exposure. We know how miserable things are in parts of Africa because a big Ebola outbreak makes headlines; or how miserable people in parts of the Middle East are because terrorist groups carry out sensational, news-grabbing acts. But no one is ever talking about how miserable certain areas of the UK (or anywhere else for that matter) are because the kind of misery and poverty that exists there is too mundane to catch anyone's interest.
"The Selfish Giant" is about two young boys, both outcasts to a certain extent, who only manage to weather their bleak existence because of their shared friendship. The movie is an examination of two different personality types -- one hot-tempered and angry, the other sensitive and soft -- and the possibility either of them has for making it in their environment. It's a deeply sad and depressing film, because we know neither of these boys really has a chance to escape their worlds and do anything much with their lives. The writer/director tries to scrape together a somewhat hopeful ending, but it's so meagre and comes after so much awfulness that it feels more like an obligatory apology for making us sit through something so grim.
I liked the filmmaking of "The Selfish Giant," but would never want to sit through it again.
Grade: A-