Pride (2014) Netflix

Tagline: “Based on the inspirational true story”. You wouldn't think someone who'd been lazy enough to use that tagline would have the stones to actually list it on IMDb. You wouldn't think.

Premise: British comedy about a small group of gay and lesbian people based in London, who supported the striking coal miners in a tiny Welsh mining town in the 1980's. It's based on a true story, which I had to dig around to find out.

Delivery: Pride was one of our occasional no-zombies-or-gore, mother and son film nights. These evenings are a niche celebration of both family and movies, and a direct result of me conning the poor woman into seeing both 300 and 28 Weeks Later in the cinema. "It's educational Madre, honest, it's about the history of Sparta". Previous, successful attempts to adhere to this rule include: Still Alice, The Lady in the Van ("Do you think Alan Bennett might be gay?"- someone I know genuinely asked that) and Wild Target. Just FYI. This was our latest attempt.

Pride is set in London, well known as the epicentre of tolerance because it's where Theresa May lives; who Londoners tolerate despite her being a hateful cunt with half the charm of that dead eyed psychopath Maggie Thatcher. May really hates the gays, it's evidential. For those wondering if I was ever going to talk about the film, the reason I've kicked off with that is because Pride is absolutely brilliant and was, for me, a story about the triumph of humanity over hatred and prejudice. Also, Maggie is the reason the poor miners were fucked in the first place.

As you'd expect from one of these rather uniquely British, well funded, issue films, the list of top acting talent is hugely impressive and on cracking form. I honestly would be doing a disservice to those I don't list by picking great performances out. It also helps cut my writing time down by thirty odd seconds and I don't want my Findus Crispy Pancake to go cold. I'm sad to have to say this, and it's not nice to hear, but there are people won't watch something if they think it is “gay”. But they should, this is a victory of humanity on every level.

Pride brought out a lot in me beyond pure enjoyment, and I thank it for that. Expecting a straight forward Brit-com like our previous successes (bar Still Alice), not only did it make me laugh and move me, it inspired me and made me think. I won't go in depth in to plot as it's pretty self explanatory and I'd rather you just watched and enjoyed it. What I will say is that there are in Pride some very, very funny scenes, but crucially some incredibly touching, moving and downright upsetting ones, too. Russell Tovey's brief cameo was utterly ruining. 

Bedsit it? I was entertained every which way, left wanting to know more and with a greater sense of how much my gay friends had to (and still do) put up/ contend with. I highly recommend this film if you haven't seen it- you can even watch it with your mum! Assuming she's not a homophobe or even a cymrophobe. 9/10


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