This is the Pure Movies review of The Violators, directed by Helen Walsh, and starring Lauren McQueen (The Mill, Ordinary Lies) and Brogan Ellis (Waterloo Road) alongside Stephen Lord (Penny Dreadful, Shameless, Route Irish), Liam Ainsworth (Kajaki), Derek Barr (Pride) and newcomer Callum King Chadwick. The Violators is a wounding look at a young woman’s navigation through life whilst encountering dangerous men at every corner, chipping away at her hardened exterior. Bestselling author Helen Walsh (The Lemon Grove) has translated her interest in transgressive sexualities, gender and class onto film. With a female writer and director, and starring two female protagonists, The Violators is significant in a time where there is a perceived dearth of women film directors. The events of the story are shocking but the waves this film will make in terms of disturbing the male-dominated status quo of cinema will be more deeply felt.
- 7/12/2016
- by Helen Chapman
- Pure Movies
Novelist Helen Walsh’s film about a teenager rehoused after an abuse case is well-acted and forthright, if a little contrived
Novelist Helen Walsh makes an interesting debut as a writer-director with this atmospheric piece of lo-fi British social realism. It’s flawed by a slightly unconvincing and anticlimactic gun-related ending, but well acted, forthright and confident in the universe it creates. The action is moored to a triangle of dysfunction: teenage Shelly (Lauren McQueen) has been rehoused by social services after an abuse case and comes into contact with a menacing, manipulative pawnshop owner and loan shark, Mikey (Stephen Lord). He appears also to have some kind of relationship with Rachel (Brogan Ellis) and this now discarded young woman – from an upscale part of town – forms a strange, parasitic friendship with Shelly. The news that Shelly’s scary dad is coming up for parole smothers the whole movie with fear and jumpy paranoia. It’s a movie of watching and being watched. Rachel gets Shelly to do a runner from a restaurant, but it isn’t until later, when we appreciate how the waitress in that scene fits in to the larger picture, that we discern a pattern of resentment and revenge. That pattern is a little contrived, but it doesn’t stop this film ticking radioactively with unease.
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Novelist Helen Walsh makes an interesting debut as a writer-director with this atmospheric piece of lo-fi British social realism. It’s flawed by a slightly unconvincing and anticlimactic gun-related ending, but well acted, forthright and confident in the universe it creates. The action is moored to a triangle of dysfunction: teenage Shelly (Lauren McQueen) has been rehoused by social services after an abuse case and comes into contact with a menacing, manipulative pawnshop owner and loan shark, Mikey (Stephen Lord). He appears also to have some kind of relationship with Rachel (Brogan Ellis) and this now discarded young woman – from an upscale part of town – forms a strange, parasitic friendship with Shelly. The news that Shelly’s scary dad is coming up for parole smothers the whole movie with fear and jumpy paranoia. It’s a movie of watching and being watched. Rachel gets Shelly to do a runner from a restaurant, but it isn’t until later, when we appreciate how the waitress in that scene fits in to the larger picture, that we discern a pattern of resentment and revenge. That pattern is a little contrived, but it doesn’t stop this film ticking radioactively with unease.
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- 6/16/2016
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Waterloo Road newcomer Abby Mavers has predicted that viewers will "fall in love" with the show's troublesome Barry family in the coming months. The actress last week made her first appearance as Dynasty Barry, who arrived at the school with her brother Barry (Carl Au) and sister Kacey (Brogan Ellis). Meanwhile, Zöe Lucker plays the trio's mother Carol. Viewers have already seen the Liverpudlian clan cause chaos at Waterloo Road, leading to some viewer complaints about "Scouse stereotyping". However, Mavers told the Liverpool Echo: "My family have just come into the school, my father's in prison and my mum's trying to be strong and find as much money as she can. Dynasty's in top set, but my brother Barry and sister Kacey are in the pupil referral unit (more)...
- 1/8/2013
- by By Daniel Kilkelly
- Digital Spy
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