Help review

 Help is too modern to be on the top 1000 films of all time, but I'm reviewing it as it touched me so profoundly.

Sarah (Jodie Comer) is a directionless, young woman just starting work in the Bright Sky care home in Liverpool. There she quickly befriends Tony (Stephen Graham) who has early-onset dementia. But their world comes crashing down when the Covid-19 pandemic hits.

I've spent the last six years working in care homes. I worked in a care home all throughout the Covid era, so this film hit close to home for me. A little uncomfortably close. It was a raw, unflinching and visceral look at how the adult care sector was completely forgotten. No, not forgotten. Abandoned. Nobody cared about us. But Help honed in perfectly on what makes a care home a care home. There are the relationships between the staff and the residents, as well as the residents and their families. We see the residents enjoying poetry, meeting sheep and having a Christmas party. The authenticity was brilliant. But it also focussed on the stress that carers are under. It really is a thankless job.

Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham were terrific as the two leads. When Sarah begins, she is lost and directionless, but she quickly finds herself. She is a hard worker and a good carer. Comer was brilliant. She bought the role to life. I know many hard-working carers just like Sarah. Graham was also fantastic, as can only be expected from an actor of his calibre. Like Sarah he is lost. Some days he knows who he is and others he doesn't. But this touches upon a very important, but little-known aspect of dementia. People have a variable capacity. Some days they can be lucid and others not so much. If you'll permit me to be a little un-pc, they're not crazy loons all the time.

Graham played the role with a great subtlety. Tony is a quiet, but powerful character. Most importantly, he is human and never reduced to a gross caricature. Tony and Sarah's relationship was at the heart of this film. And this all culminates in a breath-taking 26-minute 1-take shot where Sarah is working a hellish night shift. With all her colleagues sick with Covid, she is forced to work a double and take care of all her residents by herself. One resident becomes particularly sick, and when it becomes clear, nobody is coming to help, Sarah enlists Tony to help her. It was heart-in-the-mouth action that was stunningly shot and acted. Comer and Graham's performances had literal tears running down my cheeks. That is saying something.

I may argue that the film peaked here. Perhaps this is where it should have ended, as the second half felt like a strange addendum that had been lazily tacked on. Tony is established as a flight risk, constantly trying to return home to his long-dead mother. When he tries escaping one too many times, the manager drugs him up to his eyeballs. Sarah protests this blatant abuse, but she is promptly fired. She goes rogue and breaks Tony free. They intend to self-quarantine at the seaside, before trying to send Tony to a different facility.

This is all well and good, but it felt incredibly disjointed. It didn't seem to match the first half at all, and it also lacked a lot of the same tension and immediacy. Writer Jack Thorne originally wanted to solely focus on the daily life of a care home, before he was convinced to write about Covid-19. I wonder if this was a latent idea that he tried and failed to shoe-horn into an otherwise faultless film.

Nonetheless, Help is a near perfect film. It was a damning indictment of how the adult social care sector was forsaken during the pandemic. Coming out in 2021, it is too new to make it onto the top 1000 list, but it has earned its place on any future lists.

The Be All and End All review

If you're a long-time reader of my blog, you would know that I am working through the top 1000 films of all time. However, this film doesn't appear on this list, so why am I reviewing it?

The Be All and End All was written by Steve Lewis and Tony Owen who wrote the indie comedy-drama, and one of my personal favourites, Three and Out. They stumbled upon my review and sent me the link to their next film 'The Be All and End All.'

Robbie (Josh Bolt) and Ziggy (Eugene Byrne) are two fifteen year old boys and best friends in Liverpool. When Robbie is diagnosed with a terminal heart condition, he asks Ziggy to help him fulfil his dying wish: to not die a virgin.

At heart, this is a coming-of-age film about the bond between these two best friends. It was darkly comic, but also tragic and touching. Robert has a goal, which is relatable for teen boys everywhere, regardless of whether they're dying, and Ziggy's efforts to help him, leads to some of the film's funniest moments. He takes Robbie to a brothel, which, of course, is promptly raided by the police. Ziggy has to carry the virtually naked Robbie back to the hospital.

One of my film's favourite scenes is when Robbie is approached by a lady who works for something similar to the Make-a-Wish foundation. She wants to help him realise his final goals whether that's swimming with sharks or meeting the Avengers. When he snaps that he wants to lose his virginity, she suggests going to Disneyland instead. This character was a great example of the cliched, well-meaning, but misguided people who are always wanting to help. I work in an old people's home and I've lost count of the amount of do-gooders suggesting nice, but completely impractical things for the residents to do. 

I also loved the scene where Ziggy stands up to the school bullies making fun of Robbie's heart condition. It was very satisfying to see them get a punch to the nose.

As well as being a good comedic actor, Josh Bolt was also great at the sadder scenes. In a confrontation with Ziggy, he breaks down saying that "he doesn't want to die." And for how the film is laden is with sexual innuendo, I did like how they underplayed the ending. Robbie loses his virginity to his old flame Sophie in a simple fade-to-black. This leant a nice elegance to the scene. It was all we needed to see. But I was a little puzzled that despite how Ziggy organised for this, he also went ahead in organising a prostitute for Robbie as well.

Steve Lewis explained that the film was made on a time budget. Sometimes this isn't a bad thing like in the Irish romantic-comedy Once. However, it did look like that director Bruce Webb shot the film using natural lighting, lending a dark, subdued tone to most of the film. While this might be appropriate for the subject matter, it also did make it difficult to actually see everything.

There was a subplot of Ziggy trying to reconnect with his errant father. It didn't receive the same importance as the main plot, so it didn't land for me. In the ending scene, we see him finding and embracing his father in a big hug. I'm not sure how believable I find that considering their fractured relationship.

It was also highly unlikely that a nurse such as Tina (Liza Tarbuck) would ever have the time to help Ziggy and Robbie, but I think it worked for the purposes of the film.

All in all, while being far from perfect, I did enjoy the film. It was a charming British indie film. Word of warning though, if you do watch it, then be prepared for the Scouse accents. They are thick.