A One Mann’s Movies review of “Chuck Chuck Baby” (2024).
“Chuck Chuck Baby”, out in cinemas from this Friday, is a simply terrific new British film written and directed by Janis Pugh. It scrunches together the gritty reality of a Ken Loach social drama, some of the surrealist whimsy of “La La Land“; the toe-tapping nature of “Sunshine on Leith“; the dark humour of “The Full Monty” and it leaves you with the uplifting, life-affirming joy of “An Officer and a Gentleman”. How’s that for a movie cocktail? It also has an astonishingly powerful performance from Louise Brealey: a performance that if not nominated for a Best Actress BAFTA will require all BAFTA members to get new glasses.
My thanks to Studio Soho Distribution and their marketing team for getting me a pre-release screener of this one.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Helen (Louise Brealey) lives a dreary and hopeless life in a North Wales industrial town. She works in a chicken factory, cares for her dying ex-mother-in-law Gwen (Sorcha Cusack) in Gwen’s house that she shares with her equally trapped and angry ex-husband Gary (Celyn Jones) and his new vacuous girlfriend Amy (Emily Fairn) and their (Gary and Amy’s) son. But then a person from her school days, and literally the girl-next-door, Joanne (Annabel Scholey), returns and latent passions re-emerge.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: NR. (From the BBFC web site: “Very strong language, drug misuse, domestic abuse”.)
Talent:
Starring: Louise Brealey, Annabel Scholey, Sorcha Cusack, Celyn Jones, Emily Fairn, Emily Aston, Beverly Rudd, Cat Simmons.
Directed by: Janis Pugh.
Written by: Janis Pugh.
Twitter Handle: #ChuckChuckBaby.
Running Time: 1h 41m.
“Chuck Chuck Baby” Summary:
Positives:
- This is a film that runs your emotions through the full gamut from heartache to despair to joy and everything in between.
- A superb, award-worthy, performance from Louise Brealey well supported by an ensemble cast including Annabel Scholey, Sorcha Cusack and Celyn Jones.
- The chicken factory, and their wonderful (real-life) workers, make another memorable character in the film.
- It’s a musical… but not! But it has a truly stonking soundtrack.
Negatives:
- An opening dandelion clock just didn’t work for me and made me think “Uh oh”.
Review of “Chuck Chuck Baby”:
A bleak life in chicken town.
It takes a brave writer/director to paint as bleak a situation for our lead characters. Helen, superbly played by Brealey, is in a despairing spiral, trapped by economics in a situation not of her own making. Sadly, this is a woman who will no doubt resonate with thousands of women up and down the UK who feel equally trapped. The dying Gwen jokes that Helen should just put her out of her misery. “I’d end up in prison” replies Helen. “Yes, well, we’re both already in one love” Gwen sighs. Joanne (Annabel Scholey) is equally screwed up mentally. We only get drip fed her story of abuse, but it hits hard when she returns to her childhood bedroom.
Brealey is magnificent
I had the great joy of briefly meeting Louise Brealey at a recent Mark Kermode event at the BFI and she was delightful. I wish I’d seen the film before that so I could have gushed more! This is a magnificent acting performance. Her ‘Oscar reel’ moment is early on in the film as she sings along to Neil Diamond’s “I am.. I said” – a passionate cry to validate her self-worth while reducing herself to floods of genuine tears. How does an actress manage to DO that?
Close behind in the acting stakes is Annabel Scholey as Joanne, looking for all the world to me like a young Brooke Adams (which trust me, is a good thing!).
Elsewhere, the rest of the cast is excellent. Sorcha Cusack as Gwen has some of the best lines in the film (“Oh, she’s not as green as she’s cabbage-looking… she used to snog a Girl’s World doll”); Celyn Jones channels just the right amount of pent-up anger as the hopeless loser Gary (an eruption at a funeral to Julie Felix singing “Dirty Old Town” is utterly memorable); Emily Fairn is hilarious as the dolled-up Amy with her MASSIVE painted on eyebrows and her dictionary of made-up words (“vapory-ized” for disappeared; “instewition”, as in using her…); Helen’s chicken factory friends Lynn (Emily Aston); Paula (Beverly Rudd) and Clare (Cat Simmons) all feel like they’ve been mates for life.
“Somebody’s Got To Eat Those Chickens”.
The scenes in the chicken factory are superbly well done. This is clearly a real chicken factory, since I heard Janis Pugh comment that some of the characters who work there are featured in the film. Though for obvious reasons it’s called “Chuck Chuck Baby” here rather than its actual name! Because some of the things that happen to these chickens, and that get stuffed into the chickens at various times, make you want to ensure you thoroughly inspect and wash your Sunday roast before it gets slammed in the oven!
But this working environment and the love and support that this real ‘family’ generate is totally uplifting and joyous. At various points – a downhill shopping trolley expedition and an “Officer and a Gentleman” classic rework being highlights – you just want to stand up and whoop!
A really cute lesbian love story.
Within the extensive pantheon of lesbian love stories in the movies, this is a really cute one. Two damaged people who need a lot of mutually wooing! There are times where you just want to shout at the screen “Just kiss her for God’s sake”! And when they do get it on, it’s a genuinely touching and delicately loving moment that is not overly titilating or exploitative.
It’s a musical… but not a musical.
This is a curious beast. It has some of the tropes of a musical of the likes of “La La Land” (colourful umbrellas) and “The Greatest Showman” (sheets on a washing line), a set of banging tunes on the soundtrack, but then has the cast singing along to many of the songs… not reproducing them. It’s a bit of an “Oh!” moment…. but in a refreshingly new and different way.
The soundtrack is great, featuring these songs:
- Love Song – Lesley Duncan
- I Am..I Said – Neil Diamond
- From Me To You – Janis Ian
- Rhythm Of The Rain – The Cascades
- Northern Lights – Renaissance
- Les Fleurs – Minnie Riperton
- Walk In Love – The Manhattan Transfer
- Dirty Old Town – Julie Felix
- Goin’ Out Of My Head – Little Anthony & the Imperials
(Janis Pugh told Mark Kermode that she only secured the Neil Diamond track by personally contacting him and shamelessly pleading her elderly mother’s fandom for him!)
Dandelion Clocks just don’t work like that.
I have very very little I didn’t care for in this film. But the opening tries to emulate the plastic bag at the start of “American Beauty” except with a complete dandelion clock. I’m sorry, but that’s not how dandelion clocks work! It is also so obviously on a wire. Fortunately, the brief huff this put me in was very short lived!
Summary Thoughts on “Chuck Chuck Baby”
As I mentioned, I saw Janis Pugh and Louise Brealey talking about this film at the recent “Mark Kermode in 3D” event at London’s BFI and it was mentioned that this film was shot in a mere 26 days and on a shoestring budget. Given that, it is astoundingly good and I would encourage everyone to get out to the cinemas from Friday and to make this a huge hit.
“Chuck Chuck Baby” should be added to the list of films such as “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, “Notting Hill” and “Love Actually” that are popularly regarded as great, classic feel-good British movies.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “Chuck Chuck Baby”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfCRC8YqpsQ .
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