In a film as bleak and hopeless as this, where everyone is an abuser or being abused, and the only comforts seem to be booze and sex from your pitiful surroundings, the sudden emergence of a happy montage at a party is like a chink of light on a long, cold, dark night. Seasoned film goers though, will know something is up. Movies that are wall-to-wall depression as this is do not change direction halfway through, so those 'in the know' will take it for what it is: The Calm Before The Storm. And it does arrive. Get ready to be blown off your feet.
The acting here is terrific. Peter Mullan plays a man who is difficult to like due to his racist and violent tendencies, but the more we hear from his back story, we understand he is the way he is. Olivia Colman is just flat-out phenomenal. Her portrayal of a wife subjected to the most humiliating tortures in her private life, and the fake smile she is forced to wear at her charity shop every day, is just heartbreaking, and alas is most likely more common amongst the population then you'd expect.
There's a world out there, in council estates and slums, that we turn a blind eye to. It's full of druggies, alcoholics and various other dead-end losers, who's only ambition is to get their next 'fix', whatever that may be... and they don't care who they step on to receive it. Tyrannosaur depicts this brutal state of affairs in shocking detail, but it also reminds us, even in nice little middle class homes with picket fences and apple pies cooling by the window, that things might not always be so rosy. In fact, they can be even worse... 7/10
The acting here is terrific. Peter Mullan plays a man who is difficult to like due to his racist and violent tendencies, but the more we hear from his back story, we understand he is the way he is. Olivia Colman is just flat-out phenomenal. Her portrayal of a wife subjected to the most humiliating tortures in her private life, and the fake smile she is forced to wear at her charity shop every day, is just heartbreaking, and alas is most likely more common amongst the population then you'd expect.
There's a world out there, in council estates and slums, that we turn a blind eye to. It's full of druggies, alcoholics and various other dead-end losers, who's only ambition is to get their next 'fix', whatever that may be... and they don't care who they step on to receive it. Tyrannosaur depicts this brutal state of affairs in shocking detail, but it also reminds us, even in nice little middle class homes with picket fences and apple pies cooling by the window, that things might not always be so rosy. In fact, they can be even worse... 7/10