Parky at the Pictures (DVD 14/2/2019)

During a school trip to the seaside, 11 year-old Maurice Hall (Orlando Wells) receives an unexpected tutorial on the sacred mysteries of sexual congress from his teacher, Mr Ducie (Simon Callow), who takes pity on the fatherless boy and uses the point of his umbrella to draw diagrams that shock a respectable family out for an afternoon stroll. Any lesson learnt from this windswept encounter seems have been stored at the back of the brain, as Maurice (James Wilby) goes up to Cambridge to read Classics. He finds himself sharing tutorials with Dean Cornwallis (Barry Foster) with Viscount Risley (Mark Tandy), who teases him about his naiveté and slips his card into his jacket pocket by way of invitation. 

Embarrassed at being caught by his fellow students while practicing shaking hands in the cloisters, Maurice is disappointed to find Risley out when he calls. But he makes the acquaintance of  Clive Durham (Hugh Grant) and they soon begin spending time together, as they play the piano, punt and have play fights that culminate in Maurice wrapping Clive up in his bedsit rug. 

Taken aback by Cornwallis urging a classmate to avoid a passage in Plato that references `the unspeakable vice of the Greeks', Maurice feels exhilaration when Clive hugs him and climbs in through his window in the dead of night to plant an inexpert kiss. The pair are nearly caught in an embrace in Maurice's rooms and he is thrilled when Clive confesses to having feelings for him. They take a motorbike and sidecar into the country and spend an idyllic afternoon in the long grass. However, Clive spoils things by insisting that their romance remains platonic, as he has plans to go into politics and he doesn't want any scandal to haunt him in later life. 

Hurt by the suggestion that full intimacy would diminish them as human beings, Maurice accepts his friend's terms. But Cornwallis is appalled by Maurice's behaviour and he is sent down for refusing to apologise for missing a lecture and Mrs Hall (Billie Whitelaw) asks old family friend, Dr Barry (Denholm Elliott), to speak to Maurice when he accepts a position with a firm of City stockbrokers. He keeps in touch with Clive, however, and accepts an invitation to spend the weekend at his country estate, Pendersleigh Hall, where he meets his friend's mother (Judy Parfitt), sister Pippa (Catherine Rabett) and brother-in-law, Archie (Michael Jenn). However, he also comes under the scrutiny of Simcox the butler (Patrick Godfrey), who cycles past as they are embracing in a doorway. 

As Maurice grows a moustache and Clive completes his studies, the pair meet at dinner parties and concerts. But Clive is shaken when Risley is arrested for soliciting a soldier in a bar and (after refusing to give him a character reference) he hides his face when attending the trial that results in Risley receiving six months hard labour. Stressed by the experience, Clive faints at the graduation dinner that Mrs Hall throws in his honour with daughters Kitty (Kitty Aldridge) and Ada (Helena Michell). Maurice tries to make light of his distress, but Clive is keen to distance himself from the Risley affair and informs Maurice that their friendship must be placed on a new footing before leaving to recuperate in Greece.

Naturally, Maurice is overjoyed to see Clive on his return. But he is a changed man and makes it clear that he wants nothing more than companionship. When Maurice tries to kiss him, Clive pushes him away and barges past Kitty and Ada with a cut on his lower lip. In no mood to discuss matters with his sisters, Maurice throws himself into boxing at a club in Bermondsey. However, the sight of the naked bodies in the changing room prompts Maurice to confide in Dr Barry, who offers to put him in touch with Lasker-Jones (Ben Kingsley), who specialises in aversion therapy hypnosis. 

When Clive (who now has a moustache) announces that he is to marry Anne (Phoebe Nicholls), Maurice puts a brave face on things. He attends the wedding and joins a shooting party at Pendersleigh. Clive comes to his room to kiss his hand and hope that they can continue to be great friends. Returning to the country after his first session with Lasker-Jones, Maurice realises he has caught the eye of under-gamekeeper Alec Scudder (Rupert Graves), who brazenly chats with him in the grounds when Maurice goes for a postprandial cigarette. That night, Alec uses a ladder to climb in through Maurice's window and they spend a night of passion before Alec manages to slip away before Simcox brings the breakfast tray.

The two find themselves batting together during a cricket match, although Alec has to retire when Clive fancies a bat and promptly runs Maurice out. As he slumps into a deckchair on the boundary, Maurice is convinced that Alec is sniggering about him with one of the other servants and struts off in high dudgeon. Thus, when Alec proposes a meeting at the boathouse, Maurice convinces himself that he is trying to blackmail him to earn a nest egg before emigrating to Argentina with his brother. But Alec has genuine feelings and, on being stood up, he puts on his best suit and takes the train to London to find Maurice at his office. 

Having been advised by Lasker-Jones to emigrate to a more liberal country, Maurice is mortified when his colleagues see Alec in the foyer. So, he sweeps him away to the British Museum, where they bump into Ducie, who is visiting with his wife and two small children. Stung by his hypocrisy, Maurice pretends not to know him and throws caution to the wind in checking into a small hotel with Alec, who is due to set sail the following day. But, when Maurice arrives at the docks to wave him off, he is surprised to discover that Alec has missed the boat and he travels to Pendersleigh to make a clean breast to Clive. He beckons him into the garden at the end of dinner and Clive is nonplussed that Maurice would want to take such a massive risk with a servant. Yet, as Maurice falls into Alec's arms in the boathouse, Clive looks wistfully from his bedroom window, as the unsuspecting Anne rests her head on his shoulder. 

As one would expect of the doyens of heritage cinema, this is an exquisitely beautiful film. Cinematographer Pierre Lhomme captures makes atmospheric use of the changing light around King's and Trinity colleges in Cambridge, while also emphasising the restrictive nature of the studies and lodgings that gave the students precious little privacy. Ivory and production designer Brian Ackland-Snow make equally thoughtful use of the interiors and grounds of Wilbury Park in Wiltshire to reinforce the regimented codes of etiquette that governed everything in fin-de-siècle England from tutorials to strolls and dinner parties to cricket matches (and, yes, that is Helena Bonham Carter in an unbilled crinoline cameo in one of Jenny Beavan and John Bright's Oscar-nominated costumes). Thus, this feels firmly rooted in the social and sexual conventions of the prewar period when Forster first wrote his novel. 

He revised the manuscript in 1932 and it's noticeable how similar some of the early Maurice and Clive sequences are to those between Charles Ryder and Sebastian Flyte in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. It's uncertain whether Ivory and co-scenarist Kit Hesketh-Harvey actively sought to draw parallels with Charles Sturridge's acclaimed 1981 mini-series, but they seem pretty unmistakable. That said, Merchant Ivory had examined notions of repression and class in The Bostonians (1984) and A Room With a View (1985) and it was their tact in adapting the latter that prompted Forster's executors to allow the pair to not only adapt Maurice, but also film it in King's. 

While James Wilby (who was late replacement for Julian Sands) and Hugh Grant (in only his second film after making Michael Hoffman's Privileged [1982] while still at Oriel College, Oxford) do well enough in avoiding Edwardian archetypes, their performances sometimes seem a touch anachronistic at times, Some of the supporting roles also feel sketchy and it would have been intriguing and instructive to have spent more time with Kitty and Ada Hall, as well as Anne Durham. How different things might have been had Ruth Prawer Jhabvala not been preoccupied with her novel, Three Continents. Nevertheless, this remains a costume drama masterclass and a bold statement of pride and compassion at the height of the AIDS crisis.

A goodly number of films have been set amidst London's Jewish communities, with older items like Jack Clayton's The Bespoke Overcoat (1956), Caspar Wrede's The Barber of Stamford Hill (1962) and Michael Tuchner's tele-take on Jack Rosenthal's Bar Mitzvah Boy (1976) recently being joined by the likes of Josh Appignanesi's Song of Songs (2005) and The Infidel (2010), Paul Weiland's Sixty Six (2006), Paul Morrison's Wondrous Oblivion (2008) and John Goldschmidt's Dough (2015). 

Previously, only Ric Cantor's Suzie Gold (2004) had focused on the female perspective. But Sebastián Lelio follows suit with Disobedience, an adaptation of a 2006 novel by Naomi Alderman that the Chilean director of Gloria (2013) and A Fantastic Woman (2017) has written with playwright Rebecca Lenkiewicz, who also collaborated with Pavel Pawlikowski on his Oscar-winning study of suppressed Jewish identity, Ida (2013).

When her Orthodox rav father (Anton Lesser) dies delivering a sermon on free will, photographer Ronit Krushka (Rachel Weisz) flies back from New York to attend the funeral in North London. She is only in time for the gathering at the home of her childhood friend, Dovid Kuperman (Alessandro Nivolo), who was her father's protégé. However, he is surprised to see her and it's clear that Ronit left under something of a cloud from the cool welcome afforded by uncle Moshe Hartog (Allan Corduner). But Ronit is even more taken aback when Dovid reveals that he has married her childhood confidante, Esti (Rachel McAdams), and she accepts their invitation to stay with them rather than check into a hotel with some trepidation. 

After the guests leave, Esti shows Ronit to the spare room in the eaves. But they remain guarded and Ronit asks Dovid why the local paper reported that her father had been childless. He dismisses this as sloppy journalism and makes a show of gratitude when Ronit gives him a book of her photographs. However, he leaves it on a table in her room and assures Ronit that he and Esti are very happy together before retiring for the night. But, if their love making is anything to go by, they are bound more by duty than passion.

Esti teaches at the local girls' school and proves to be every bit as timid with her class as she is with her husband. She invites Ronit to Shabbos dinner with Moshe and his wife, Fruma (Bernice Stegers). and Rabbi Goldfarb (Nicholas Woodeson) and his spouse (Liza Sadovy). They ask why she uses the name Roni Curtis for work purposes and question her about when she is going to settle down and have a family like a good Jewish woman. However, she upsets Moshe by mentioning her eagerness to sell the parental home and raises eyebrows by claiming that she would have killed herself if she had been coerced into a loveless marriage and forced to abandon her artistic ambitions. 

Despite visiting his grave, Ronit still feels detached from her father and is disappointed to learn that he has left the house to the synagogue. Moshe breaks the news when she comes to his wig shop and he chastises her for not nursing her father through his final illness. But Ronit complains that nobody had contacted her and he concedes that it must be painful for her dealing with the rav's loss when she had not received his forgiveness. 

Ronit wanders out of the shop still wearing the wig she had been trying on and Esti hardly recognises her when she sees her on the street. But she accompanies her to her father's house and consoles Ronit, as she goes between the familiar rooms that have scarcely changed since she left. She smiles when she turns on the radio to hear The Cure's `Lovesong' and they nod their heads to the music in a moment of fond nostalgia. Shrugging away her emotions, Ronit wishes that Krushka had referred to her somewhere in his will and is about to leave without taking any keepsakes when Esti kisses her on the mouth. She reciprocates eagerly, only to pull away and rush downstairs. 

They kiss again before taking their leave, with Esti grabbing the silver candlesticks that had belonged to Ronit's mother and stuffing them into her bag. As they stroll along the suburban street, Ronit asks Esti why she married Dovid. She reveals that the rav had encouraged her to take a husband in the hope that domesticity would cure her of her impure impulses and admits that things had turned out better than she had expected, especially as she was allowed to continue her career in teaching. But she finds her Friday conjugal duty to be something of a chore and regrets not having had any children. Esti asks if Ronit has been with other women since their romance and she shakes her head before lighting a cigarette and offering Esti an illicit puff. 

As dusk closes in, they visit the park where they used to tryst and hold hands beside the tree under which they first kissed. However, when they press against the mesh fence of the tennis court to embrace, they are interrupted by a couple coming to play under the floodlights and Ronit is left to chat with them while Esti flees. She rushes home and is showering when Dovid gets home and clings to him when he asks if she is okay. At school the next day, however, Esti is summoned before headmistress Hannah Shapiro (Caroline Gruber), where she is confronted by the couple from the tennis court.

While Dovid is being offered the chance to take over from the rav by Dr Gideon Rigler (Steve Furst), Ronit meets Esti out of school. She sense something is wrong and Esti tells her that she has tried to hard to live a good life and can't risk it all by having her reputation questioned and diminishing Dovid's standing in the community. But Ronit persuades her to take the Tube into Central London, where they make love in a hotel room. As they lie together, Esti reveals that she checked time zones so that she always knew whether Ronit was awake or asleep and they recall the fateful moment that the rav had walked in on them in bed together. Ronit takes Esti's photograph without her wig and she poses with a cigarette, as she looks back coquettishly over her shoulder. 

Dismayed to find his wife missing when he gets home, Dovid tries to seduce her at bedtime, but she asks him to desist. The following morning, Esti is sick in the bathroom sink and wonders whether she might be pregnant. But she has more pressing matters to deal with, as Shapiro has filed a formal complaint against her to the synagogue council and Dovid asks her why she is trying to ruin their live. Esti replies that she can't deny who she is and has wanted Ronit since they were girls. But, eavesdropping from the stairs, Ronit concludes that it would be better for everyone if she flew back to America and, feeling betrayed by her cowardice, Esti slams the door on her when she leaves. 

However, Esti gets up in the night and travels into London to check a pregnancy test in a hotel room. Dovid calls Ronit at the airport and she comes back to help him find his wife. They go to the Krushka house to find it has been completely emptied and Ronit smiles at the speed with which people are trying to move on while claiming to treasure her father's memory. On arriving home, they find Esti waiting for them. She asks Dovid for her freedom, as she wants her child to be able to chose its faith and he pleads with her not to make another mistake. But Esti is adamant and Dovid leaves for the memorial service for the rav without them. 

Ronit and Esti arrive at the synagogue together and take their seats in the upper gallery. As the cantor sings, Ronit asks Esti to come to New York with her and clutches at her hand. Moshe introduces Dovid as the new rabbi. But he is too emotional to use the speech he has prepared and recalls that Krushka had been talking about free will when he took his last breath. Looking up to Esti, he grants her the freedom she craves before turning down the promotion, as she lacks the understanding to fulfil the role. Outside, Dovid beckons Ronit to join him in a hug with Esti and the women link fingers against his back as they cling together.

The next morning, Ronit takes her leave. Waking on the sofa, Esti wishes her a long life. But she rushes after her taxi and urges Ronit to stay in touch and they declare their undying love as they kiss. Ronit also takes a detour to the cemetery in order to take a photograph of her father's unadorned mound and to whisper her last farewell. 

In making his English-language debut, Lelio astutely demonstrates that Ronit and Esti are no different to the protagonists of his two previous pictures. Like Gloria and Marina, the women are at a crossroads and fully aware that the next decision they take will set the direction that the rest of their lives will follow. But there is nothing more difficult than that first step into the unknown and both Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams poignantly convey the sense that the road to freedom is always a more difficult choice for a woman than it is for a man. 

From the opening scenes, Lelio and Lenkiewicz establish the contrasts between the lives the women are leading. Ronit is photographing an old man with a tattooed torso when her father collapses in his ceremonial robes and, while she manages to tear her garment in the prescribed manner, she only finds the nerve to do so after visiting an outdoor skating rink and having a knee-trembler in the washroom of the bar in which she has downed a bottle of wine. Further comparisons follow, as Ronit's wild hair and bohemian fashions set her apart from the other women at the funeral, with their wigs and sensible black dresses. Similarly, Esti's formal Friday night coupling with Dovid couldn't be more different from the passionate fumble she enjoys with Ronit in the hotel room.

A number of contrivances are required for the women to reach this stage, with the tennis court smooch being particularly gauche. But Lelio and Lenkiewicz capture the constricted atmosphere that Ronit shatters when she shows up in Hendon out of the blue and reminds everyone that their beloved rav had disowned his only child by putting faith and status above fatherhood and compassion. Interestingly, Dovid avoids committing the same error, as he has grown up with Ronit and Esti and the humanity and humility with which he grants the latter her freedom refreshingly avoids the stereotyping that is so infuriatingly prevalent in films about religious conviction. 

In truth, the central trio are the only fully fleshed characters, with too many of the secondary figures being ciphers. But Alessandro Nivolo proves every bit as effective as Weisz and McAdams, who give nuanced performances when it would have been so easy to lapse into star-crossed melodramatics. Lelio similarly resists this temptation by imposing a sombre mood that is reinforced by the chilly North London weather and the clunky comfort of Sarah Finley's interiors. Cinematographer Danny Cohen picks up the details within the décor without undue over-emphasis, which can't always be said for Matthew Herbert's score. But Cohen does stick close to Weisz and McAdams, as he captures the urgency and intimacy of their love making that contrasts with the formality of the group compositions involving Nivolo and his flock.

A quick look at the shorts 96 Ways to Say I Love You (2015) and The Exit (2016) should give you an idea of what to expect from actress-turned-director Daisy Aitkens's feature debut, You, Me and Him. Slick, assured and nowhere near as amusing as they think they are, the entries in this loose trilogy on love and commitment have been produced by Georgia Tennant, the wife of onetime Doctor Who, David Tennant, and the daughter of Sandra Dickinson and onetime Doctor Who Peter Davison, who cameo in a ménage romcom that is far too glib to appeal to mainstream audiences and way too patronising to appeal to the LGBTQ+ constituency that it so gauchely exploits. 

Christmas is coming to Stratford-upon-Avon and 39 year-old lawyer Lucy Punch is feeling good about life with her pink-haired artist girlfriend Faye Marsay until she learns that a colleague is leaving to have a baby and she becomes debilitatingly broody. Boss Don Warrington is hardly sympathetic, as he pries into the dynamics of Punch's physical relationship, while Marsay has enough trouble getting up in the morning and finding some clean clothes to be ready for motherhood. So, she is taken aback when Punch proposes marriage out of the blue and then springs the idea of having a child at a family party. 

Barely speaking after Marsay and friend Tessie Orange-Turner are arrested for being under the influence of hash brownies on a fairground merry-go-round, the pair attend a party being thrown by recently divorced neighbour, David Tennant. However, when Punch springs the news that she has already started a course of artificial insemination, they have a blazing row and Marsay gets drunk and tumbles into bed with Tennant, while Punch goes home to her plummily affluent parents, Gemma Jones and David Warner, who haven't quite come to terms with the fact that their daughter is a lesbian. 

When Marsay comes to beg forgiveness, Punch is overjoyed. But, when they find out on the same day that they are both pregnant, Punch chucks Marsay's clothes out of an upstairs window and throws a peace offering cake into Tennant's bedroom. She relents when Marsay arrives on the doorstep with a pram and has brother Simon Bird draw up an agreement that they will meet each other's parents and inform Tennant that he is going to be a father, but not let him get involved in any way. However, he pleads to play an active part raising his child and, because neither mother-to-be can drive, they reluctantly accept his help. 

Having enjoyed spooking squeamish gynaecologist Nina Sosanya, Punch and Marsay take prenatal classes with Australian guru Sally Phillips, who delights in the street cred that helping a lesbian couple brings her. But Punch feels it's unfair that she is having all sorts of inconvenient side effects while Marsay is breezing along without a care in the world. Thus, she resents the fact that Tennant (who is having sympathetic symptoms) comes round to brush her hair while she's having gas attacks in court. She is also appalled when they are thrown out of Phillips's class after she finds them in the washroom examining Tennant's genitals, which have mysteriously turned orange. 

Marsay's mother, Sarah Parish, is dismayed that her daughter is expecting and urges her to have an abortion and try again when she is over her lesbian phase. She proves equally forthright when the families meet to go rowing on the Avon and she asks the nonplussed Bird if he is gay. He is affronted, but has to field the same inquiry when Tennant falls into the river while arguing with Punch and he pities him for being wet. Having just discovered she is expecting a boy, Punch has another unfortunate encounter at the supermarket when she gives some chocolate to Ingrid Oliver's kids and has to endure a tirade about how children ruin a woman's body and her life. 

Despite Tennant promising to keep his distance, he remains a fixture and Punch is frustrated by the rapport he has developed with Marsay. She asks Bird to speak to him, but they get drunk at a pole-dancing club and Bird confesses that his wife has left him. He is embarrassed, therefore, when Parish finds him standing next to a scantily clad waiter and Punch and Marsay's baby shower, which the former soon comes to find intolerable after Sunetra Sarker mistakes Marsay and Tennant for a couple. However, when she gets into a stand-up argument with Marsay in front of their guests, the latter feels abdominal pain and is rushed to hospital, where Sosanya declares her daughter to be dead in the womb. 

As Marsay is finding it hard to come to terms with her loss, Punch goes to stay with her folks. She is slightly put out when Marsay turns up to a garden party with Tennant and Orange-Turner in tow and makes her excuses to swerve posh school pal Rebecca Gethings to watch them cavorting around on a bouncy castle. Marsay leaves her friends to get canoodlingly acquainted and Punch rushes after her to ask when they can resume their relationship. But, while Marsay insists she needs more time, she has already turned the spare room into a nursery and, so, Tennant comes to the country to implore Punch to patch things up with her girl. 

No sooner has Punch proposed on one knee outside the front door than she goes into labour and Tennant drives them to the hospital. He crashes out on the chairs outside the delivery room and the action shunts forward a year to a Christmas lunch with Punch's family. Her son is dressed like an elf and Marsay now has a blonde bob because she is training to be a teacher. They remain an item, but have decided that marriage can wait, while they work out how to be mothers.

Closing in a tearing hurry after the tragic twist fails to have its desired emotional impact, this glorified sitcom leaves the audience to contemplate just how happy Punch and Marsay's ending really is. But this bittersweet gambit feels as forced as the references to Tennant's Mannism website and the recurring quotes from Louisa M. Alcott's Little Women. Clearly Aitkens intends popping Tennant's misogynist balloon and hopes she is doing her bit to counter the homophobic prejudice that Parish exhibits so brazenly at every opportunity. But Punch and Marsay's lesbianism always feels like a plot device, whose contrivance is exacerbated by the ruinous lack of chemistry between the stars. 

Punch is a fine comic performer, but this awkwardly fitting role rarely plays to her strengths and she is often reduced to stooging for Marsay's Yorkshire kook and Tennant's Scottish chauvinist. She also has to cope with having to hold her own against the innumerable guest stars who pop up with distracting regularity throughout a storyline that often feels like an aggregation of discarded sketches. The production values are solid enough and Aitkens makes decent use of the lovely setting. But, even though Aitkens wisely changed the title from Fish Without Bicycles, this always feels like a well-intentioned bid to show lesbians in a normative light rather than an insider's comic cri de coeur.

Some things never change and viewers of a certain age - or, at least, regular watchers of the Talking Pictures TV channel - will spot the similarities between Ed Lilly's debut feature, VS., and Lance Comfort's Be My Guest (1965). Each film has a seaside setting and centres on an aspiring musician. But, while David Hemmings had to overcome the resistance of his Brighton hotelier parents to play with his pop combo, Southend-based Connor Swindells has to conquer his demons after spending much of his youth in care in order to realises his ambition to become a rapper. 

When another blazing row brings to an end a foster placement, 17 year-old Adam (Connor Swindells) promises his case worker, Terry (Nicholas Pinnock), that he will try to keep his nose clean for his last 11 months in the child protection system. Deciding to take him out of London, Terry finds him a room with retired foster mother Fiona (Ruth Sheen) in Southend. While exploring the seafront, Adam flirts with Makayla (Fola Evans-Akingbola), who works in the change kiosk at an amusement arcade, and she introduces him to street cleaners Blaze (Joivan Wade) and Joe (Kieron Bimpson), who promise to hook him up with some weed at a rap battle session that Makayla is helping to promote.

The evening has already started by the time Adam arrives and he sees Makayla introducing Miss-Quotes (Paige `Paigey Cakey' Meade), who rips into Rulez (Kola Bokinni). He also watches an increasingly personal showdown between and Word Phyzix (Adam `Shuffle T' Woolland) and Liam (Adam `Shotty Horroh' Rooney), who bills himself as `Slaughter'. There is clearly no love lost between the pair and Adam is amused by some of the traded insults. However, he is less than delighted to discover that Liam has a thing for Makayla and, when she tries to fob Liam off in the car park after the show, Adam finds himself flat on the floor after being pushed over for daring to interfere. Undaunted, he gets to his feet to deliver a couple of stinging lines that put Liam in his place and get appreciative applause from the onlookers. 

Makayla takes Adam for a milk shake and she compliments him on his comeback. They discuss their backgrounds and Adam reveals that he hails from Southend. As he speaks, he looks up to see his birth mother, 
Lisa (Emily Taafe), chatting to the owner at the counter and he goes quiet. Still feeling frail, he ignores Fiona when she asks how his day has gone and he says nothing when he finds a set of headphones left in his room as a welcome present. 

The following day, Makayla shows up with two bottles and offers to help Adam work on his rapping skills. They knock back the booze and thumb through the pages of a dictionary, as they come up with lyrics to show off his wit and attitude. She also finds his scrapbook and tries to coax him into opening up about his past. He was clearly fond of one foster mother, who fell ill. But he can't make up his mind whether to pay Lisa a visit and confront her. 

After Makayla leaves, Adam smokes a joint in the garden. Fiona suggests that there are less harmful ways of calming down and hopes that they can find a way of making things work during his stay. The next day, Makayla accompanies Adam to Scissorhands, the salon where Lisa works. He has booked an appointment and has to steel himself, as he sits in the chair and she gives him a No.2 trim. As she reveals more of his skull, Lisa recognises a distinctive mark and abruptly halts the chit-chat and hurries him to the door as quickly as possible. 

Sporting his new look and his rap name. `Adversary'. Adam is drawn against Blaze at the next Project Battle session. As they keep getting moved on by the cops, the venue is kept secret and a cameraman films the event for live streaming online. Once again, Makayla is the MC with Odds (Elliot Barnes-Worrell) and she introduces Adam, who gets the odd whoop from the crowd in attacking Blaze and his drug-dealing racket. He responds by mocking Adam for having no Internet profile to give him ammunition and launches into a diatribe about his mum being fat and ugly. When Adam hisses that his mother being dead, he is accorded a right of reply and he trashes Blaze by revealing that he once wet himself while reading from the Bible in front of his class. 

Luckily, Blaze is a good sport and he invites Adam to a party, where he meets Katie (Ellie James), who congratulates him on his performance. Liam takes exception to them chatting and warns Adam to stay out of his face. But, as a montage shows Adam becoming a fixture on the battle scene (and even buying a black baseball cap to make him look more street), it becomes clear that the pair are heading for a titanic collision. Indeed, during one stand-off, Adam walks past his opponent to deliver his invective to Liam, who is on the front row of the audience. 

Adam is grateful to Makayla for helping him find his feet. But he misreads her interest in his talent and she backs away when he closes in for a kiss. Feeling foolish, he asks Odd to set up a battle with Missy so that the winner can take on Liam, who has been mouthing off that he is too big for the Southend scene and is ready to spread his wings. When Terry comes to visit, Adam also agrees to a supervised meeting with Lisa, who recovered from the shock of him coming to the salon. She explains that she had been very young when she had him and found the pressure of being a single mum hard to bear. Despite putting him into care, she had always planned to take him back. But she had been advised by her social worker that she was still emotionally unready for the burden and she had gone along with their verdict. 

Furious at hearing that she had sacrificed his future for her sense of well-being, Adam raves at Lisa and storms out of the building, despite Terry pleading with him not to burn his bridges. He tries to call Makayla, but she doesn't answer and, when he spots her in a bar with Liam, he wanders off along the promenade. Finding Katie sat on a bench with her baby daughter, Adam stops for a chat and he walks her home. She explains that Liam is the child's father, but he pays nothing towards her upkeep and rarely sees her. Adam jokes that she is lucky that she didn't inherit her father's looks and he tumbles into bed with Katie, who persuades him to stay the night. 

Arriving home to find Terry waiting for him, Adam asks why everyone conspired to stop Lisa taking him back. But Terry advises him to concentrate on the present not the past and suggests letting the dust settle to see how Lisa feels about future meetings. Channelling his anger, Adam goes into battle with Missy and is nettled when she taunts him for failing to get a snog out of Makayla. So, he responds by outing Missy and Makayla as lesbians and spews out misogynist bile that is cheered to the echo by the mostly male crowd, thus securing him a victory by acclamation. 

After the show, however, Makayla harangues him for betraying her secret and reminds him that he had no right to use her life for his own gain. She leaves wth Missy and Liam browbeats him for disrespecting his friend. Adam responds by accusing Liam of being a worthless father and a fight breaks out. Odds and Blaze try to intervene, but Adam takes a beating and lose his temper with Fiona when she explains that she is dutybound to tell Terry what has happened. Throwing a tantrum, Adam smashes a photograph of one of Fiona's former charges and she tries to calm him by promising to stand by him. He even goes to the salon to ask Lisa what's wrong with him before going to see if Blaze will give him a floor for the night. But Odds is livid with Adam because the owner of the venue has barred them from using it again and he urges him to think about the people he has let down by trying to be the big man. 

Having slept rough on a bench at the railway station, Adam goes to the arcade to apologise to Makayla. However, while Missy is happy to let what happens in the battle stay in the battle, Makayla knows the power of words and refuses to forgive. Needing a platform for his mea culpa, Adam persuades Liam to engage in a showdown by the pier at 4am. Pleading with Terry and Fiona to let him finish what he started, Adam strides into the arena for Adversary vs Slaughter.

Odds and Makayla adjudicate and send Liam into bat first. He rips into Adam for his chauvinism and for lying about his mother being dead. But, while he gets plenty of gasps and giggles from the crowd, he barely lays a glove on Adam, who comes out of his corner fighting. However, having dissed Liam for his lack of parenting skills, he uses the moment to tell the watching Lisa that he finally understands what she must have gone through and he apologises for having put his own feelings first. Liam nods in appreciation at this honesty and Adam hands over to Missy to have her say before slipping away to see Lisa. She thanks him for recognising that she had never wanted to lose him and they agree to meet up again soon. As he rejoins the circle, Adam asks Makayla to forgive him, which she does by acknowledging that he has talent to match his guts. 

Although many have compared this seething first feature to Curtis Hanson's Eminem vehicle, 8 Mile (2002), it actually has more in common with Michael Caton-Jones's Urban Hymn (2015), in which repeat offender Letitia Wright finds redemption singing in care worker Shirley Henderson's choir. Moreover, this is the latest in a long line of features dating back to the 1930s that captures the ambience of an English coastal resort that has seen better days and whose tawdry seafront glamour masks the socio-economic problems festering beneath the surface. In his regard, Ed Lilly is indebted to production designer Anne Pritchard and cinematographer Annika Summerson, although he also seems to have been lucky with the Essex weather. 

Writing with Daniel Hayes, Lilly isn't always on such sure ground. The first meeting between Adam and Makayla feels like something crafted for the stage rather than anything snatched from life, while his conversations with Terry and Fiona also feel forced. Moreover, the loose ends are tied together with a neatness that would not have been out of place in a Cliff Richard `putting on a show' picture like Sidney J. Furie's Wonderful Life (1964). But, as the narrative develops, the dialogue begins to sound more natural, while the on beat and a cappella battle raps fizz with a pulsating unPC energy that is both disarming and revelatory. 

Clearly, the contents of the raps is going to shock and Auntie will have a lot of explaining to do when this eventually airs (unless it gets buried on BBC3) to licence payers who will be baffled by the fact that Adam's best hope of regaining his emotional equilibrium lies in couching violent impulses in language that would be deemed socially unacceptable in any other context. There will also be questions asked about why the hero has to be a poor white boy who is never once accused of cultural appropriation. But Connor Swindells seizes his opportunity and seems set to become a familiar face. Such is the state of British cinema, however, that one suspects the estimable Fola Evans-Akingbola, as well as grime artist Shotty Horroh, will find similarly choice roles harder to come by. 

Three decades separate John Baxter's Flood Tide (1934) from Duncan Wood's The Bargee (1964), during which time barges made rare appearances in such diverse British pictures as Oswald Mitchell's Sailors Don't Care (1940), Charles Crichton's Painted Boats (1945), Charles Saunders's Love in Pawn, John Gilling's Three Steps to the Gallows (both 1953) and Lewis Allen's Whirlpool (1959). By contrast, in the last two years alone, canals and houseboats have cropped up in Will Sharpe and Tom Kingsley's The Darkest Universe (2016), Paul King's Paddington 2, Richard Loncraine's Finding Your Feet, Carlos Marques-Marcet's Anchor and Hope (all 2017), Oliver Parker's Swimming With Men and Mandie Fletcher's Patrick (both 2018). Now, adding to this number is Tupaq Felber's monochrome debut, Tides, which accompanies a group of friends on a short barge holiday that teaches them that it's often easier to look back through rose-tinted spectacles than to take a clear-sighted view of what lies ahead. 

Fortysomething Jon (Jon Foster) is gazing at the photos on his phone on the bank of canal somewhere in southern England when he's joined by his old mate, Zooby (Jamie Zubairi). The latter has arranged the canal trip on which they will be joined along the way by Red (Robyn Isaac) and Simon (Simon Meacock), and they struggle to take everything in while being given a crash course in steering the `Snow Goose' and operating the locks. However, they are soon underway and make their first stop to pick up some provisions at a supermarket and discuss the fairest way of dividing up the costs because Red is only going to be with them for a single night. 

Chattering non-stop, the pair soon get their bearings and Jon enjoys taking the tiller. After a couple of hours, they spot Red waiting on the bank. She is going to a wedding and can wishes she could stay longer. But she is aware that Jon has been having a hard time and asks Zooby if he's up to talking or should be left alone with his thoughts. Knocking back the wine before moving on to vodka, Red helps Zooby unpack the groceries and they tease Jon when he moors the boat for the night. The moment he stops having to concentrate on steering, however, Jon is overcome with emotion and he chastises himself for letting his guard down. 

As darkness falls, they are joined by Simon, who creeps up along the towpath and makes Jon jump. He is also an actor and they challenge each other to do various accents over supper. But, as the booze begins to flow and the estranged friends slip back in the old routine, Red begins to feel the chaps are picking on her and she skulks on to the deck for a cigarette. Jon follows to check she's okay and she hums and haws over telling him about the problems she's been having with her on-off boyfriend. She explains how he refuses to commit because he is forever seeking new sensations and experiences and she reveals how sad she felt watching a documentary about a couple who had been together for 50 years because she knows she is unlikely to enjoy the kind of intimacy that comes from longevity and the easy familiarity that comes after the sexual fire dies down. 

Back in the cabin, Red natters with Jon and Simon after Zooby goes to bed early. However, she gets irked when they start talking about video games and she complains that they are boring, middle-aged geeks. When they protest, she goes for another fag and chugs from the wine bottle before leaving them to smoke dope on the deck. Simon asks Jon if he is cool with the fact that everybody has been treading on eggshells in striving to avoid one particular topic of conversation and he admits that it's still too painful to address. He feels the boat rocking beneath him and decides the time has come to turn in. 

When they wake around midday, they all feel the worse for wear except Zooby, who is making coffee. Jon Skypes his partner, Amanda (Amanda Rawnsley), who has their infant son on her knee, while Red reaches for her sunglasses because she feels so rough. She has to catch a train to get to her wedding and they pore over maps to find her a suitable station en their route. When they reach a lock, she takes photographs while Simon opens the gates and Jon does the steering. 

Up on deck, Simon and Jon agree that it would be wonderful to bring their families on a canal holiday when their kids are a little older. In the galley, Red asks Zooby if Jon is cross with her because of her rant the previous night. But he thinks things are fine and they leave him at the helm, while they tuck into brunch with Simon. Zooby lies on the roof to do some watercolours and Red jokes that Simon always talks about himself and never asks anyone about what's happening in their lives. She wishes she didn't have to go to Chelsea and they try to coax her into staying if she's only important enough to be invited to the evening do. 

However, she does her make-up on the roof, as the countryside glides by, and changes into her best frock. Jon carries her case over the bridge to her taxi and returns to snap at Zooby and Simon about mooring up and going to the nearest pub for something to eat. When the others reassure him they have plenty of daylight left to press on further, Jon blows up at them and insists he is too tired to go on and feels they should respect his wishes. He calms down after the first pint and sympathises with Simon when he reveals that he is waiting to find out if his character is going to be killed off in the TV series he is banking on to pay his mortgage now that his wife has quit her job to raise their daughter. 

When Jon goes to the village shop for some supplies, Simon and Zooby have nothing to say to one another. Consequently, we follow Jon on his errand and watch him try to balance several items in his arms because he can't be bothered getting a basket. Once back at the boat, Zooby plays a pleasing melody on his guitar, while Simon lounges in the setting sun. But Jon feels restless and suggests that they make the most of the beautiful evening and chug on. The others josh him, but readily agree and they make steady progress with Simon at the tiller. 

Zooby paints Jon's portrait and asks how he's coping and he shrugs in confessing that he has good days and that learning to deal with change is part of life. They pass a man on the bank having a heated conversation on his phone and have to suppress giggles when he struts past them in some distress when they reach the lock. By the time dusk densens, they have found their mooring place beside a ruined priory and make fast before tucking into Zooby's curry. The conversation touches on fatherhood and the uniqueness of parental love, as well as Christian Marclay's 24-hour video installation, The Clock (2010), which is made up of film clips showing timepieces at different times of the day. Jon explains how he tried to impose a narrative on the footage and has similarly done the same thing in trying to make sense of his father's recent death. He breaks down and Simon hugs him and Zooby tells him not to worry because they are all friends and that they will always be there for him. 

Having talked all night, the trio go for a dawn stroll. They look across the fields to the priory and watch some ducks sleeping on the water. Further along, they look over a bridge at the water hurtling through a weir before returning to Snow Goose. Turning to face the rising sun, Jon feels the warmth on his face and a gentle smile plays on his lips, as he comes to terms with his new reality.

Beautifully photographed by Paul O'Callaghan in shimmering black and white along the River Wey in Surrey, this is the most visually engaging narrow boat saga since Luke Korzun Martin spent two uninterrupted hours on the Kennet and Avon for All Aboard! The Canal Trip (2015). That leisurely odyssey almost doubled BBC4's average audience, but it's hard to see 600,000 people shelling out to watch Tides at their local cinema. This is a shame, as there is much to admire about Tupaq Felber's first feature. But the improvised banter between four old friends in various stages of inebriation soon begins to grate and leave one pining for Marc Hatch's sublime blend of rippling water, bird song, barking, treetop breezes and chugging motors. 

The films of Jon Saunders have demonstrated that immersive drama isn't always the result when experienced actors are allowed to improvise in front of a camera. Thus, while it's intriguing to speculate about the relationship histories between Jon, Red, Zooby and Simon, their actual interactions rarely make for engrossing viewing. Despite the best efforts of Jon Foster, Robyn Isaac, Jamie Zubairi and Simon Meacock to remain in the zone, their naturalism often seems strained, with the result that the viewer is left to feel like a spectator at a drama workshop rather than an eavesdropper on a slice of life. 

Acting as his own editor, Felber makes frequent use of ellipses to inject a little pace and convey the lowering of defences as the pals who haven't seen each other for some time get back into their old rhythm. But the decision to withhold the reason for Jon's emotional fragility feels like a miscalculation, as it fails to generate any sort of melodramatic suspense and suggests that the foursome aren't as close as Felber would like us to believe. Even though there were tensions within the group in Lawrence Kasdan's The Big Chill (1983), one never gets the impression that this quartet have only kept in touch fitfully over the years and that it wouldn't make a huge difference to the overall dynamic if Jon had chosen three completely different acquaintances. 

Nevertheless, vague insights into an actor's life (with all its attendant sacrifices and uncertainties) emerge from the sometimes waspish banter, along with an appreciation of the self-absorption that seems essential to any form of artistic or sporting endeavour. But, while the cast members strive to remain centre stage, O'Callaghan's canny camerawork makes the most of the cramped interiors and the tranquil waterway to suggest that all four have become becalmed in drifting apart.