She-watchables Episode 72: The Commitments

This month we wanted to celebrate music festival season (AKA rainy season) by rewatching the 1991 Alan Parker Dublin soul musical The Commitments. (Also, because Rita wanted to commemorate the sad and untimely death of Commitments guitarist and Oscar winner Glen Hansard and this, according to Betty, is his best film 😉). The film tells the story of a group of largely unemployed musicians trying to reclaim soul music for the working classes, and made a star of young singer Andrew Strong. Pop quiz…can you guess which cast member had never played an instrument before appearing in this film? Download the podcast and listen to find out!

Never usually ones to miss the boat (or trawler), we’re just over a week late to the football party with this month’s film 😄Looking for Eric (2009) is in a category of its own - a feel good Ken Loach movie! Yes, there’s kitchen sink grittiness (in fact the kitchen sink features quite a lot in this film, come to think of it) and a lot of “language of the terraces” but with the collection of Mancunian comics in the cast it easily passes the six-laugh test. Add in Eric Cantona playing a very thinly disguised version of himself and you’ve got a timely and uplifting British movie, whichever side of the red/blue divide you sit on.

You might not automatically think that this month’s movie falls within the She-watchables criteria of “British and International films” but it’s our podcasts, and we play by our rules! The 1995 film Babe, based on the children’s book “The Sheep Pig” was genuinely groundbreaking in terms of its visual effects, and was a worldwide smash. We chose it this month because we felt we (and you) deserved a feel-good film in these “difficult times” but be warned, it contains “unfortunate events” of the type you might expect on a farm, and may also spoil your next sausage butty.

We do like a topical film here at She-watchables HQ (election talk is off the menu as it makes us too mad) so we thought this month we’d allude to the lovely weather we usually have at this time of year! Unfortunately, in doing so we seem to have broken the sun, which is coincidentally is the same situation in which eight astronauts find themselves in Danny Boyle’s 2007 sci-fi Sunshine. Amongst other burning issues we discuss cooking in space, and what you shouldn’t name your spacecraft if you’re hoping to take it quite close to the sun. Tune in next month when we She-watch Singing in the Rain to try to get the weather back on track 😆

The more observant amongst you may have noticed that there’s a Glen Powell movie in the cinema at the moment that bears a striking resemblance to a stone cold Ealing classic. We won’t be She-watching How to Make a Killing as it falls outside of our (self-imposed, liable to change at any time on a whim) remit but we have enjoyed revisiting Kind Hearts and Coronets, a film mathematically eight times better than Star Wars, if you’re a fan of Sir Alec Guinness. If you haven’t seen it before, it’s worth seeking out before listening to the podcast. You’re in for a treat with this jet black comedy that has more murder and extra-marital affairs than we’ve ever seen in a PG movie (but they’re posh, so it doesn’t count!).

Missing the Winter Olympics? This month we’re getting our fix of snowy shenanigans by She-watching the “true story” of “Eddie the Eagle” directed by Dexter Fletcher and starring Taron Egerton as the eponymous ski jumper. Despite (or perhaps because of) the artistic license taken with the actual truth of Eddie’s story, it’s a fun feelgood film that warms the heart like a turquoise ski suit and a swig from a hip flask.

Director Matthew Vaughan seems to have a thing for movies featuring a nerd who becomes a hero and gets the girl (is there something you need to get out of your system, Matthew?). Before Kick-Ass there was Stardust, the 2007 fantasy movie about a meet-cute between a shop boy and an actual celestial star, With a stellar cast including a stunning Michelle Pfeiffer, a pre-Daredevil Charlie Cox and a cross-dressing Robert De Niro, Stardust is the perfect off-beat romance for February, the month of Love!

This month’s movie is all about the Spice. Sadly, it’s not Denis Villneuve’s wonderful space epic Dune, but the 1997 Spice Girls vehicle Spice World. If you really, really, really want to zig-a-zig-ah, you might enjoy this latest she-watch, as uber-Spice fan Betty attempts to convey the charm of the winner of the 1998 Stinker Movie award for Worst Picture to Spice sceptic Rita. All aboard the Spice bus for Chupa Chups, choons and LOTS of cheese!

We break tradition this December by She-watching a film which isn’t actually a Christmas film but is Christmas-adjacent, having been watched by millions of people on TV around this time last year. Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl was the latest labour of love from Aardman Animations, reuniting scatty inventor Wallace and adorable Gromit with their sworn enemy Feathers McGraw. Having only previously watched it through a carb, sugar and Baileys induced haze last December 25th, we go back and reassess it in the cold light of day and guess what? It’s still 82 minutes of absolute joy. And you can rewatch it yourself in Christmas Day this year, because goodness knows there’s nothing else on 😂

Sometimes, you avoid watching a film, or the work of a particular director, for a long time, making assumptions that you won’t like it. Then you take the plunge and watch one of their top-rated films, fall in love and go back and devour their entire back catalogue.Secrets and Lies is not that film.Mike Leigh’s award winning drama does have a lot to offer with a stellar performance fromBrenda Blethyn as a mother reunited with the daughter she gave up for adoption, but I’m sure everyone on set had a better time making it than we had watching it 😄Apologies to any Mike Leigh fans out there, maybe you could tell us what we’re missing?