ALSO RELEASED

DAYS OF THE BAGNOLD SUMMER (12) Inbetweener Simon Bird’s feature directorial debut is an entertaining tale of a despairing single parent and her angst-ridden teenage son

A★★★ ★★

DAPTED from Joff Winterhart’s graphic novel, Days of the Bagnold Summer is a fitfully entertaining coming of (middle) age comedy, which marks the feature directorial debut of Inbetweeners star Simon Bird.

Working from an undernourished script by his wife Lisa Owens, Bird confidently navigates the rivers of miscommunication between a shy, bookish mother and her truculent teenage son, who face the prospect of spending a miserable summer together.

These two misfits are initially sketched as caricatures, barely capable of exchanging a civil word as they wrestle with loneliness and abandonment in pastel-shaded middle-class suburbia.

“You’re always telling me to try new things,” bitterly complains the teenager during one exchange.

He angrily demands his mother provide a specific example.

“I don’t know,” she meekly and wearily retorts. “Olives?”

Monica Dolan demonstrates her dramatic range as well as impeccable comic timing as a despairing single parent, who is at her wit’s end trying to find a tiny scrap of common ground with her boy.

Bad Seeds singer Nick Cave’s son Earl reeks of sulking, adolescent angst and Tamsin Greig offers amusing support as a hippy Reiki master, who believes her healing hands can salve deep emotional wounds.

Mild-mannered librarian Sue Bagnold (Dolan) lives

Rob Brydon as Mr Porter with her heavy metal-fixated 15-year-old son Daniel (Cave), who has reached the age when everything his mother says and does is a major irritation.

A proposed day trip to the seaside inspires a petulant outburst – “I hate the beach, I hate sand!” – and he repeatedly rolls his eyes behind tangles of greasy black hair when Sue suggests he might help out around the house with chores.

Daniel’s plan to spend six weeks in Florida with his father Bob and stepmother are cruelly dashed and he faces the bleak prospect of wallowing in self-pity under

Monica Dolan as Sue and Earl Cave as Daniel the same roof as his dowdy, divorced mother.

Sue encourages her boy to update his CV and find a holiday job but Daniel prefers to hang out with best mate Ky (Elliot Speller-Gillott) and daydream about becoming the lead singer of a nihilistic band called Skull Slayer.

Meanwhile, Sue entertains the possibility of a first date with Daniel’s history teacher, Mr Porter (Rob Brydon).

Younger sister Carol (Alice Lowe) fans the flames of Sue’s long dormant desire.

“You’ve been living like a nun for eight years. You’re allowed to have a bit of fun,” she contends.

Astrid (Tamsin Greig) and Daniel

Mother and son embark on separate paths to selfenrichment and unexpectedly grow closer.

Days of the Bagnold Summer charts a predictable narrative trajectory, underscored by a dreamy soundtrack courtesy of Scottish rock band Belle & Sebastian.

Loosely structured vignettes, including a toe-curling fudge-making demonstration replete with cameo from comedian Tim Key, tiptoe towards the obligatory catharsis for both lead characters.

■ Available to stream/ download from June 8.

Jakob Dylan and Tom Petty

ECHO IN THE CANYON (12)

Preview

FOR two glorious years in the mid-1960s, folk music went electric as bands flocked to Los Angeles to emulate The Beatles.

The Laurel Canyon region of the Santa Monica Mountains emerged as a hot bed of creativity for this new generation of musicians.

The Byrds, The Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield and The Mamas And The Papas gave birth to the California Sound, opening a vivid new chapter in American popular music.

Documentary film-maker Andrew Slater celebrates this fertile period in the company of Bob Dylan’s singer-songwriter son Jakob, who uncovers previously unheard personal stories behind the bands and songs of the era.

The film includes nostalgic contributions from Jackson Browne, Eric Clapton, Roger McGuinn, Michelle Phillips, Ringo Starr, Brian Wilson and Stephen Stills, David Crosby and Graham Nash alongside commentary from contemporary musicians including Tom Petty in his final on-camera interview.

■ Available to stream/download from June 8.

GUEST OF HONOUR (15)

Preview DAVID THEWLIS headlines Canadian film-maker Atom Egoyan’s slow-burning mystery, which unpicks the tangled relationship between father and child.

Former high school music teacher Veronica (Laysla De Oliveira, pictured) prepares for the funeral of her father Jim (Thewlis) with spiritual guidance from understanding priest Father Greg (Luke Wilson).

In a series of flashbacks spanning 15 years, Veronica confesses the intricacies of ties to her old man, a food inspector who occasionally wielded his power with malicious intent.

Veronica reveals that she has recently served time for abusing her position of trust with 17-yearold student Clive (Alexandre Bourgeois).

Her spell behind bars seems to be facilitated by a jealous school bus driver Mike (Rossif Sutherland) yet Veronica refuses the efforts of Jim to secure her early release.

Sins of the father are paid by his flesh and blood but atonement for one member of the clan comes with dire repercussions for another.

■ Available to stream/download from June 5