An evocative, provocative 80s-set UK drama
Blue Jean (M, 93 mins) Directed by Georgia Oakley Reviewed by **** ½
The winner of the People’s Choice Award at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, a movie that took home four gongs from the British Independent Film Awards and one of the stand-out slices of cinema at last year’s New Zealand International Film Festival.
British writer-director Georgia Oakley’s big-screen debut deserved a better fate than bypassing a general release in Kiwi cinemas for a much-delayed streaming debut, but if you’re a fan of the kind of evocative, provocative kitchen-sink dramas lovingly crafted by the likes of Mike Leigh, Andrea Arnold and Clio Barnard, then Blue Jean is well worth seeking out.
Transported back to 1988 Newcastle (naturally the soundtrack includes New Order’s Blue Monday), we quickly learn that Jean (Rosy McEwen) is leading a double life.
By day, she’s a quiet, nervy PE teacher who clearly cares for her charges, but actively avoids socialising with her colleagues. By night, she can regularly be found at the local gay bar with boisterous biker girlfriend Viv (Kerrie Hayes).
However, it’s there that one night her two worlds collide when she encounters Lois (Lucy Halliday), a teen who has just arrived at the school. Fearing being outed at a time when the Conservative government is proposing a crackdown “on the promotion of homosexuality”, Jean is dismayed when Lois both joins the netball team she coaches and inveigles her way into her social circle.
Then, as Lois makes a dangerous enemy in the form of team-mate Siobhan (Lydia Page), Jean finds herself at the centre of a growing storm, as concerns are raised about both her handling of that escalating enmity and the discovery of a copy of Dyke Beat on herdesk.
From the clever forefronting of naturalistic sounds, to the gloomy visual palette and pitch-perfect production design, Oakley really creates a sense of space and place, as she transports us back to the era of bleached, spiky hair, “Madchester” music and the madness of “Maggie’s” reign.
And thanks to terrific turns from newcomer Halliday and the magnificent McEwen (The Alienist), this fully deserves its place (alongside the likes of My Beautiful Laundrette, This is England and Withnail and I) in the pantheon of fabulous films about Britain’s tumultuous “Thatcher Years”.