A rebellious youth, sentenced to a boy's reformatory for robbing a bakery, rises through the ranks of the institution through his prowess as a long distance runner. During his solitary runs, reveries of his life and times before his incarceration lead him to re-evaluate his privileged status as the Governor's prize runner.

Black and white, gay and straight, mothers and daughters, class, and coming of age. Jo is working class, in her teens, living with her drunk and libidinous mother in northern England. When mom marries impulsively, Jo is out on the streets; she and Geoffrey, a gay co worker who's adrift himself, find a room together. Then Jo finds herself pregnant after a one night stand with Jimmy, a Black sailor. Geoffrey takes over the preparations for the baby's birth, and becomes, in effect, the child's father. The three of them seem to have things sorted out when Jo's mother reappears on the scene, assertive and domineering. Which "family" will emerge?

Arthur, one of Britain's angry young men of the 1960s, is a hardworking factory worker who slaves all week at his mindless job for his modest wages. Come Saturday night, he's off to the pub for a loud and rowdy beer session. With him is Brenda, his girlfriend of the moment. Married to a fellow worker, she is nonetheless captivated by his rugged good looks and his devil-may-care attitude. Soon a new love interest Doreen enters and a week later, Brenda announces she's pregnant. She tells Arthur she needs money for an abortion, and Arthur promises to pay for it. By this time, his relationship with Doreen has ripened and Brenda, hearing of it, confronts him. He denies everything, but it's obvious that their affair is all but over.

In Northern England in the early 1960s, Frank Machin is mean, tough and ambitious enough to become an immediate star in the rugby league team run by local employer Weaver. Machin lodges with Mrs Hammond, whose husband was killed in an accident at Weaver's, but his impulsive and angry nature stop him from being able to reach her as he would like. He becomes increasingly frustrated with his situation, and this is not helped by the more straightforward enticements of Mrs Weaver.

Jane, a young French unmarried mother-to-be, takes a room in a seedy London boardinghouse that is inhabited by an assortment of misfits. She considers getting an abortion, then rethinks this solution. She falls into a relationship with Toby, a struggling your writer who stays on the first floor. Eventually she comes to like her odd room and makes friends with all the unique characters in the house. But she still faces two problems: what to do with her baby, and what to do about Toby.

A young man, inching his way up from working-class traditions via a white-collar job, finds himself trapped by the frightening reality of his girlfriend's pregnancy and is forced into marrying her and moving in with his mother-in-law due to a housing shortage in their Northern England town.

The English factory town is dreary but Joe Lampton has landed a job with a future. To have something to do at night, he joins a theatrical group. His boss's daughter Susan is playing ingenue roles on stage and in real life. She is attracted to Joe, who thinks about how much faster he will get ahead if he is the boss's son-in-law. This plan is complicated by his strong desire to be with an older woman who also belongs to the theatrical group; she is French and unhappily married. Joe believes he can get away with seeing both women.

Jimmy Porter is a loud, obnoxious man, rude and verbally abusive to his wife, Alison. Alison comes from an upper class family that Jimmy abhors and he berates Alison for being too reserved and unfeeling. Jimmy is college educated but works with a partner, Cliff Lewis, as a street vendor operating a candy stall. Cliff lives with Jimmy and Alison and is close friends with both. When Jimmy pushes Alison while she is at the ironing board she is burned. Alison visits her doctor where it is revealed that she is pregnant. She asks him if it is too late to do something about it but the doctor immediately tells her never to mention such an idea. When Jimmy leaves for work, Alison confides to Cliff that she is pregnant. She is frightened of Jimmy's reaction to this news, and has not told him. Jimmy is visited by his childhood nanny, Mrs. Tanner, whom Jimmy loves and calls "Mom." Alison tries to tell Jimmy of the pregnancy but is frustrated when Jimmy insults her for being cool towards Mrs. Tanner.. Alison tells Jimmy that her actress friend, Helena Charles, is coming to stay at the flat. Jimmy hates Helena. In his anger, he curses Alison for her cool demeanor, and wishes that she would have a child and that the child would die so she could feel anguish to break her cool demeanor. Helena arrives, and when she has had enough of Jimmy's bitterness toward Alison, she convinces Alison she should allow her to call Alison's father, Colonel Redfern, to take her to the family home and leave Jimmy. Jimmy then gets word that his nanny has had a stroke. Jimmy begs Alison to come with him to see her but Alison goes with Helena to church. Jimmy visits his nanny in the hospital and is convinced she is dying. Before Jimmy returns, Alison's father arrives and leaves with Alison. Helena stays in the flat. Jimmy returns and Helena tells Jimmy that Alison is going to have a baby. Jimmy says he does not care. When he calls Helena an evil-minded virgin, she slaps him. Then they kiss and make love, locking Cliff from the flat. Jimmy and Helena live for a while in the flat, apparently happy, with Cliff, while Alison stays at her family's home waiting to give birth. Cliff begins to feel out of place, having been close to Alison but not Helena. At the candy stall, Cliff tells Jimmy that he has decided to leave. He wants something better. Jimmy has decided to get out of the candy business, too. Cliff says good-bye to Jimmy at the train station and Jimmy tells him he is worth more to him than a dozen Helenas. Jimmy and Helena enter a train station pub where they find Alison seated at a table alone. Jimmy leaves and Alison tells Helena she lost her child in pregnancy. Helena feels that she has to leave Jimmy. Helena returns to the flat and tells Jimmy she is leaving him because she cannot stand the torment of their lives. Jimmy returns to the train station and finds Alison waiting to return home. They talk of the lost child and Alison tells him she can never have children. Jimmy and Alison reconcile.

1959 British film directed by Tony Richardson

Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy Casper (

A young woman lives a life filled with bad choices. She marries and has a child with an abusive thief at a young age who quickly ends up in prison. Left alone she takes up with his mate (another thief) who seems to give her some happiness but who also ends up in the nick. She then takes up with a series of seedy types who offer nothing but momentary pleasure.

Movie version of the BBC TV play that first addresses some of the major social issues of the day. A girl from a rich family in Chelsea is bored and decides to go "slumming" in depressed Battersea. She gets a flat and starts working in a factory and makes some friends there. One of her friends is pregnant but abortion is illegal ...

Amy and Jim Preston have been married for twenty years but, in her husband's eyes, she has become sloppy both about the house and herself. Jim has no problems with falling in love with Georgie Harlow, a fellow-office worker who is pretty and young, and willing. Jim finally asks Amy for a divorce so he can marry Georgie, and Amy pleads for him to stay, but he walks out. He soon realizes that he can't go through with the desertion of Amy and their teenage son, Brian, and returns home.

Slice of life drama following the lives of various people in London's East End on a wet Sunday. (Is this film why people think it always rains in England ?) Rose was engaged to local wild boy Tommy Swann but he got imprisoned on Dartmoor. After he was locked up she got married to sedate but dull George. Tommy's now broken out of jail and comes to see Rose to get help to flee the country.

British 1950s - 1960s: youth disillusionment with society, social realism of the working class, anti-escapism

Kitchen Sink Realism

movie

Niko Aiello

I guess I’m more of an arthouse snob than I thought

1979 American war film directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Best of All Time

1987 American science fiction parody movie directed by Mel Brooks

Sci-Fi and/or Horror 

2014 film directed by John Michael McDonagh

Watchlist 2.0

Sundance was good this year - TasteDive has not update most of these with accurate trailers/photos, descriptions are mostly okay

2023 film list

I like stuff with financial crime, or drugs. Or financial crime related to drugs

Crime

Board Games

Seductiveness of the miraculous, embrace of authoritarianism, corruption in power, isolation and loneliness, reflection on grief

Kitchen Sink Realism

More lists by Niko Aiello

Best of All Time

Sci-Fi and/or Horror

Watchlist 2.0

2023 film list

Crime

Board Games

Contemporary Religion

Books to Read

Source Material