The Selfish Giant

A hard island punch in the gut, in which the director does not coddle either the characters or the audience. For me personally, Little Arbor embodies what I would never want to have sitting in my classroom as a teacher, and yet as time goes on you find yourself actually slowly but surely starting to root for this arrogant, rude brat. I have a bit of a problem with the fact that there is perhaps too much of the pretentious "shitting marble" in the course of ninety minutes (and yet the boys can be really funny at times) and that the fireworks are perhaps a bit too flashy. Yet given the way the filmmakers work with the mood of the weather and the minimal music, it ends up sounding exactly as raw as was originally intended. It's exactly the kind of film that makes domestic social dramas look like harmless "little errors" a little too strongly. (28.06.2013)

Awfully brutal, uncompromising social drama from the British lower class. The dad’s on the bottle in the local pub throughout the entire first league, the mom is taking the anger out on her son and so the son doesn’t come out of his room until after it’s dark outside. The entire movie was paced in a somewhat industrial way. The story takes place in a relatively small industrial city, so there’s one factory next to another. And this entire time, a story’s being told about two boys and a bunch of wires buried underground, waiting to be made into profit. But this fantasy of getting rich simply has to backfire. And you have to brace yourself, because then you’re left with your eyes wide open and a blank stare. This was a really brutal movie. (21.07.2014)

Women on islands make me happy... Andrea Arnold revived the tradition of social drama with an unprecedented emphasis on lyricism, which Clio Barnard continues - what is mainly phenomenal is the work with the landscape, which over time loses geographical specificity and becomes a universal and dreamy space around the characters, a space of fog, buzzing electric wires, grazing horses and turbulent households. Another strength of The Selfish Giant is the work with the characters and the absolutely convincing child actors, who manifest themselves with the social periphery and still manage to develop their characters internally. It is the relationship between Arbor and Swifty that bridges the only fundamental defect, which is the predictability of the story. Thanks to them and thanks to the extraordinary moderation of Barnard's direction (it interweaves immediacy and functional lyricism), the catharsis of the story represents a believable and captivating moment. The unusual work with the wild motif of the garden and its guardian, sacrifice and unconditional love is unique and distinguishes The Selfish Giant from the fairly numerous competition. Sometimes it could be argued that some of the images are unnecessary and that the film offers a cynical rejection, but it simply has such inner strength and sensitivity that it captivates even when one is aware of what is going to happen. The parallel with Andrea Arnold is not purposeful - Barnard is also able to empathize with the characters, capture their inner marches and reflect them in the landscape, and she also avoids "systemic" contexts and focuses on the inner world of the protagonists. An intense experience and a great selfless discovery. (29.06.2013)

Somehow, the current British films don't sit well with me. It's interesting how they are made rawly and how the performances are natural, but they just don't click with me, even in the case of strongly emotive films. "Selfish Giant" is like that, especially the actor in the main role is absolutely excellent, but I still can't help it, these are not the films that touch my heart. And they can be convincing to others. (21.04.2014)

First this was a movie that said very little to me, but then there were emotions, so many emotions. I’m just dumb-struck - a really powerful story that makes you really think. And the ending? Simply brilliant. (25.07.2014)