Pride Review

      There’s something special about a proper British film, the likes of Brassed Off, The Full Monty and Billy Elliot, they have an effect on British cinema goers which makes us feel proud, the American’s might have the biggest movie industry in the world, but they can’t make a film like Pride. This film genuinely made me proud to be British, there’s something immensely heart-warming about seeing two completely different communities coming together in order to fight against a bigger evil, the evil in this case being Thatcher’s conservative Britain. So much of this is fantastic that amongst all the brilliant culture clash jokes and gay/welsh laughs, it’s hard to believe that most of it is entirely true, It’s a real talent by both writer and director that they manage to balance the tickling your funny bone and pulling on your heartstrings so well, the emotional touchstones being the miners club breaking out in a song of unity, and the amazing image of seeing hundreds of miners walking side by side in the gay pride parade supporting the gays who supported them. The performances are uniformly brilliant, a real great mix of the well-established actors such as Staunton, West, Considine and Nighy, and then the brilliant young actors such as Scott, McKay, Gilgun and Fox. The one criticism I’d have of the film is I did feel at some points that it had sanded down the sharper edges of the politics, though the film has emotional moments I wanted more of the reality that the miners suffered through, same with the gays it only really touches on the aids crisis towards the end. However with one of the best soundtracks of the year there will be few better nights out at the cinema. (High 4 Stars)