Starter for Ten
Director: Tom Vaughan
Writer: David Nicholls
Cast: James McAvoy, Alice Eve, Rebecca Hall, Charles Dance, Lindsay Duncan, Dominic Cooper, Catherine Tate
It seems that we are going to get a rash of Eighties nostalgia movies now that the people who were young then have reached an age and position where they can get feature films made. Right now we have The History Boys, although to be fair Alan Bennett is a bit older than thirties, and Starter for Ten.
Where The History Boys focussed on the last year of secondary school, Starter for Ten is set n the first year of university. The connections go even further because Dominic Cooper and James Corden appear in both films, although in Starter for Ten they play a pair of Essex seafront losers.
Starter for Ten is also a much lighter film, with its main conceit being Brian Jackson's (James McAvoy - Shameless) ambition to appear on University Challenge. While this is the driving force behind the story it is also a romantic comedy and a nostalgia trip for all those who went to university during the turbulent Thatcher years.
Coming from the Essex coast, Jackson wants to prove to himself, and his mum (Catherine Tate), that he is clever, by not only getting into university, even if it is Bristol and not Oxbridge, but also getting onto University Challenge. He wants to display that all the useless bits of information he has memorised over the years of watching TV quiz shows can be put to good use. Trouble starts when he becomes enamoured with his blonde, buxom teammate Alice (Alice Eve).
After years of being subjected to American college teen comedies it is great to see a uniquely British take on the genre and one that we can actually relate to. The squalor of student life, the angst that accompanies infatuation and love, binge drinking and the first experiments with illicit substances, protests (against everything) and the need to impress your peers. It is all done without the over-the-top antics of our US counterparts and with a good dose of old-fashioned British class-system snobbery. And of course there is plenty of music from the era from the likes of The Cure and The Buzzcocks.
McAvoy's performance is the right mixture of wide-eyed innocence and down-to-earth honesty, all done with a totally believable Essex accent. Catherine Tate is great as his mum, but sometimes hard to disassociate from her comedy show characters. Charles Dance and Lindsay Duncan put in a great cameo as Alice's parents in one of the funniest scenes in the movie.
Starter for Ten is a lot lighter and funnier than The History Boys, but still has its moments of drama and emotion. Both are definitely worth seeing and are released far enough apart so as not to over-inundate you with nostalgia.
Also keep an eye out for Art School Confidential from the writer and director of Ghost World, for an American view of the art school experience.
Starter for Ten is on general release from November 10
Official website
Writer: David Nicholls
Cast: James McAvoy, Alice Eve, Rebecca Hall, Charles Dance, Lindsay Duncan, Dominic Cooper, Catherine Tate
It seems that we are going to get a rash of Eighties nostalgia movies now that the people who were young then have reached an age and position where they can get feature films made. Right now we have The History Boys, although to be fair Alan Bennett is a bit older than thirties, and Starter for Ten.
Where The History Boys focussed on the last year of secondary school, Starter for Ten is set n the first year of university. The connections go even further because Dominic Cooper and James Corden appear in both films, although in Starter for Ten they play a pair of Essex seafront losers.
Starter for Ten is also a much lighter film, with its main conceit being Brian Jackson's (James McAvoy - Shameless) ambition to appear on University Challenge. While this is the driving force behind the story it is also a romantic comedy and a nostalgia trip for all those who went to university during the turbulent Thatcher years.
Coming from the Essex coast, Jackson wants to prove to himself, and his mum (Catherine Tate), that he is clever, by not only getting into university, even if it is Bristol and not Oxbridge, but also getting onto University Challenge. He wants to display that all the useless bits of information he has memorised over the years of watching TV quiz shows can be put to good use. Trouble starts when he becomes enamoured with his blonde, buxom teammate Alice (Alice Eve).
After years of being subjected to American college teen comedies it is great to see a uniquely British take on the genre and one that we can actually relate to. The squalor of student life, the angst that accompanies infatuation and love, binge drinking and the first experiments with illicit substances, protests (against everything) and the need to impress your peers. It is all done without the over-the-top antics of our US counterparts and with a good dose of old-fashioned British class-system snobbery. And of course there is plenty of music from the era from the likes of The Cure and The Buzzcocks.
McAvoy's performance is the right mixture of wide-eyed innocence and down-to-earth honesty, all done with a totally believable Essex accent. Catherine Tate is great as his mum, but sometimes hard to disassociate from her comedy show characters. Charles Dance and Lindsay Duncan put in a great cameo as Alice's parents in one of the funniest scenes in the movie.
Starter for Ten is a lot lighter and funnier than The History Boys, but still has its moments of drama and emotion. Both are definitely worth seeing and are released far enough apart so as not to over-inundate you with nostalgia.
Also keep an eye out for Art School Confidential from the writer and director of Ghost World, for an American view of the art school experience.
Starter for Ten is on general release from November 10
Official website
posted by Chris Patmore at 12:15 PM
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