Coming-of-age in Scotland. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more good-natured film. Original, creative. . .very relaxing. No problems, just clean streets, good schools and modern tract housing. Put this on a double-bill with Over The Edge. They are the exact opposite movies.
Jordan Hoffman is a New York-based writer and film critic working for The Guardian, Vanity Fair, Thrillist, Times of Israel, NY Daily News and elsewhere.
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Also worth noting for the Scottish summer … with the sun still out at 10:00 at night, which freaked me out as I thought that only happened with areas farther north.
Why is it that I recall my teen years having much more in common with Gregory’s Girl than Over the Edge? Don’t seem to recall any armed, drunken one-legged freaks dancing with a blow-up sex doll at my local convenience store. Gets into my earlier theory re: the first Decline of Western Civilization flick … that the band Loverboy inadvertently saved the 80s.
Another cool British Isles romantic comedy that you won’t find: Hear My Song. About an Irish musical hall promoter in a run-down Irish-immigrant section of London who needs to track down a legendarily missing Irish tenor (played by Ned Beatty) who fled England in the 50s to beat a tax rap. One of my favorite movies of all time which has yet to make the jump to DVD.