Film review: Ali & Ava makes sweet music
It’s also home to writer/director Clio Barnard, whose first film, 2011’s, was about the short, tragic life of Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar. She’s since moved on to more traditional dramatic fare taking place in the same region, earning her comparisons to fellow British social realists Ken Loach and Mike Leigh.
Aside from a shared sense of loneliness and general heart-brokenness, the two seem to have little in common. Even their taste in music doesn’t overlap: she prefers country and folk, while he’s into rap and electronic dance music, which he sometimes listens to while dancing on the roof of his car. They meet almost randomly – he’s giving a lift home from school to the daughter of one of his tenants, and impulsively invites her into the car and out of the rain.
All of which makes the gentle love story that follows so unexpected and sweet. And its obstacles, including a kind of how-dare-you racism from family members of both protagonists, threaten to topple the fragile emotions at play before they can turn into anything more solid and lasting. Barnard doesn’t rush the story or its characters, apparently based on people she met while making her other films in the area. But she does display a wonderful economy of language, her dialogue suggesting a practical, unsentimental view of life. Here’s Ava discussing the end of her relationship with a man who took to beating her.Ali & Ava opens July 29 in cinemas.
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