SOMETHING A bit different this week - a movie in the cinemas that is not available via streaming. If you want to see this, and you should, you are going to have to go to a cinema.
Rocks is the name of the lead character - a confident young girl in London who lives in a council flat with her mum and little brother. She is not really interested in school, aside from the social side of things where she has a great core group of supportive friends.
One day she comes home to find a note from her mum saying she has gone to 'clear her head' and asks Rocks look after her brother. Rocks knows if she tells anyone they have been abandoned, the state will separate them and she is determined not to let that happen.Rocks is a modern version of the Ken Loach classic, Cathy Come Home and is a realistic examination at what poverty looks like in 2020. I know it sounds miserable but please believe me when I say it is not.
.
The difference here to a film by Ken Loach film, one of my favourite directors, is the fun the characters are having, and it should go without saying working class households and schools are no different to anywhere else, they are full of laughter and happiness. I laughed watching Rocks more than I did most big studio comedies released this year.
'This film works because it is empathetic, not at all patronising, and wonderfully optimistic'
Rocks has a lot to say about class and about education but it is mostly about friendship and adolescence. I do not think I have ever seen teenage friendships as realistically portrayed as I did here. The script was written along with the cast through workshops and this is why it feels so natural. The director (Sarah Gavron ) also splices in scenes shot with iPhones with snap chat filters and it all flows well - you feel like you are seeing the world through the eyes of the girls.
.
This is an amazing film centred around a horrible situation, a girl abandoned by her mum, but it is such an enjoyable watch. It works because it is empathetic, not at all patronising, and wonderfully optimistic.
We are not getting the usual Hollywood output this year due to Covid, and if you do not always get to see low budget indie movies, now is a good time to check one out. I cannot imagine anyone not getting a lot out of this film. I would be very surprised if it didn’t make my Top 10 at the end of the year.
