Pride brings ‘the feel good factor’ to Thame Cinema

ONE of the most joyously uplifting and feel-good films of 2014, Pride is part of a, by now, well established and much loved British tradition of films that manage to be funny and poignant but that engage with serious political issues. Think The Full Monty, Made in Dagenham, Billy Elliott, Brassed Off – movies that have you wiping away the tears, laughing out loud, feeling suitably aggrieved at social injustice, but tempted to hug everyone in the cinema as the credits roll. Based on a true story, and revisiting the same territory as Elliott and Brassed Off, the year is 1984, and the miners’ strike is in full stride, taking its toll on mining communities, and at the forefront of conservative political and tabloid rhetoric.

A group of gay activists from London – a community equally vilified by press and conservative politics and overshadowed by the onset of AIDS – decide to fund raise in support of a Welsh mining community in the spirit of solidarity against a shared adversary. What ensues is a classic culture clash / fish out of water comedy, with hilarious scenes of two worlds colliding – disco diva Dominic West helps the Welsh macho types with the ladies by showing them a few dance-floor moves; Imelda Staunton and a bus load of housewives head to the West End for a night on the town among the drag queens at the Electric Ballroom… But the film never simplifies or trivialises the political and personal complexities of the issues at stake, and it has an emotional heft appropriate to painful and conflicted experience. If the festive season is about good will to all (regardless of gender/sexuality/race/class/politics etc…) then this is the film for the season. Wonderful. View the trailer here.

DIRECTED by Matthew Warchus, Starring Ben Schnetzer, Dominic West, Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Andrew Scott, George Mackay, Paddy Considine, Joe Gilgun and more…

Saturday December 20th – PRIDE – UK 2014, 120 minutes, 15 Certificate – The Players Theatre, Nelson Street, Thame – Licensed bar;  doors open 7.30pm – Film begins 8pm – £5 on the door.