A portrait of a bloke hopelessly devoted to his wife and booze (there are three of them in this marriage so it’s a bit crowded).
Photographer turned film-maker Richard Billingham, who’s been documenting his parents for years, does an incredible job in this autobiographical tale of making us feel at home in a series of decrepit rooms that aren’t in the least bit cosy.
He’s said that “every detail in the room is telling the story”, and it’s true. In the first of two settings (a terraced house in Dudley), kitsch paintings glow with a sickly kind of energy. Meanwhile, a caged budgie with the reflexes of Nadia Comaneci reacts to some horrendous goings-on.
Ray (Justin Salinger) and the mega-belligerent Liz (Ella Smith) live with their kids Richard and Jason. Sometimes Ray’s nervy, childlike brother Lol (Tony Way) pops over to babysit. What happens to Lol while he’s babysitting is something you watch with your eyes wide shut. I’ve never seen a shoe heel put to more vicious use. What happens to Jason years later is only a smidge less upsetting. Richard floats through it all. Like a fly on the wall, he notices everything.
Billingham doesn’t romanticise a single molecule of the past. Maybe it’s a West Midlands thing. All hail an instant classic.
