FUNNY COW
Northern soul…
CERTIFICATE 15 DIRECTOR Adrian Shergold Starring Maxine Peake, Paddy Considine, Tony Pitts, Stephen Graham SCREENPLAY Tony Pitts DISTRIBUTOR Entertainment One running time 103 mins OUT 4 MAY
S et in the arse-end of England’s north in the ’70s, Funny Cow will shock and surprise. It’s the story of a woman, never named and just credited as ‘Funny Cow’, who dreams of being a stand-up comic to escape the daily drudgery. Played by Maxine Peake (Dinnerladies, Shameless, The Village), Funny Cow’s life is dogged by domestic violence – inflicted by both her father (Stephen Graham) and her husband (Tony Pitts, who scripts) – but she never breaks.
Director Adrian Shergold (Pierrepoint) brilliantly captures the drab world of working men’s clubs, where Funny Cow first plies her trade with a politically incorrect act that would make Bernard Manning blush. Peake is superb, and she’s not the only one, with Paddy Considine playing against type as the sensitive bookshop owner who might just offer a way out of her bruising existence.
Feeling like a spiritual cousin to the social realism of Mike Leigh or Alan Clarke, Shergold’s film also takes bold steps in other directions, not least with the doc-style framing device of Funny Cow’s to-camera interview and the film’s chapter headings. A story of strength, endurance and the power of humour to wipe away the tears, it all coalesces into something that’s both uplifting and unusual. First-rate.
THE VERDICT
Excellent. Filled with vim and vigour, particularly from a powerful Peake, it’s the sort of film the British do best.