Boy A.

Now I know I said I might move onto some horror films and here I am reviewing some pretentious British social realism, but I ain’t even mad. Call me a pretentious film critic if you want, this was a fucking masterpiece. Enjoy!

When the credits finally rolled, I got out of bed, I paced a little and sat back down on the bed and I cried, silently as to not wake up my Dad, but I cried longer and harder than I have in an extremely long time. I wasn’t even sure what I was doing, not straight away. When the crying finally subsided I looked around the room and realised that this film has left me very morally confused and will perhaps change my life, forever.

To get it out of the way, I don’t suggest this to mainstream viewers. The film is pretty slow and relies more on drama and the characters and their dialogue than any real action plus the narrative is pretty complicated in its construction. There are a few scenes I can’t work out myself if they’re in Jack’s head, dreams or if they are real. Okay, with that out the way, for everyone else here will be roughly a thousand words why this is a masterpiece. 

I LOVE British social realist cinema. I mean yeah, it’s insanely depressing - most are also pretty slow and not a lot happens. Sometimes they get to heights of melodramatic nonsense in their bleak outlook of the world but they are still deep and gritty and just all about life and love and everything in between. They move you to laughter and tears and they are just great films, to anyone who can enjoy a film without explosions. Even to you Americans out there, check out this movement and prepare to enter a film experience like no other. 

Boy A is no exception. Based on a novel based loosely around the Bulger case. For anyone who doesn’t know what that is, first punch yourself, with a hammer. Then when you regain consciousness, do some research. If you have somehow managed to live your life without ever hearing of this story of true human evil, then I guess you live in Bikini Bottom. 

It follows Jack, who is trying to build a new life for himself. Through the use of flashbacks we learn Jack (in those days, known as Eric) meets a deeply troubled boy named Philip. The two kids bond quickly, beating up the bullies that tormented them, stealing from shops, talking about sex, fishing and killing fish. Jack explains about how his mother is dying of breast cancer and Philip explains how he is repeatedly sexually assaulted by his brother. This all eventually leads to them killing a little girl. Since neither boy would take the blame for the crime, they were both sent to prison. Philip (I’m unsure if it happens in or out of prison) commits suicide, although Jack never truly believes the story. In one scene, men in dark hoodies gang up on Philip and murder him, making it look like suicide, I think this is a dream sequence but I’m honestly not sure. 

When Eric’s sentence is done, he is released out of prison under his new chosen name, Jack Burridge. Jack makes friends, makes money, gets a girl and lives a normal life. This all comes a little too easily but I’m honestly nit picking and really is there for dramatic purpose to create a sort of balance in the rest of the movie. However thanks to Terry (who I’m not entirely sure what he is). He isn’t related to Jack and I don’t think he is a cop, but he looks after the rehabilitated kids. I don’t know if this is some job I’ve never heard of, or what. Terry grows to love Jack, like a son, drunkenly admitting to his real son that Jack is his ‘greatest achievement’. This, understandable upsets Terry’s real son a great bit, since Terry’s career made his wife leave him and take their son with them and Terry spent the years looking after the monsters and not seeing his own son. His sons payback is logging onto Terry’s laptop and revealing Jack’s true identity to the world. There were people queuing up and offering huge lumps of cash to do Jack in, because they haven’t forgiven what he’s done. And damn right. So with his secret revealed, his friends and girlfriend turning against him. Being fired from his job, Jack runs and the film ends just before we find out if Jack kills himself or not. Although there are a few spoilers in here, I've deliberately left out some key scenes for you to experience yourself.

The confusing thing for me was, I liked Jack. True I did not know from the beginning what he had done but by the time I had learnt..I almost didn’t care, I forgave Jack, I knew he’d changed and become someone new and better. And it just made me realise, just how different everything is, when their crime is the last thing you read, not the first. I’m a firm believer in the death penalty, I was appalled when people argued for Bulger’s killers to be tried as children (ultimately meaning a softer sentence), despite the disgusting things they had done - I’ve know serial killers to kill in more tame ways. And when I learnt one of the killers was relocated to Australia with tax payers money to start off his new life, I was repulsed. But then, if I bumped into him in the street and I didn’t know and he turned out to be a lovely young man, just how would I feel if I learnt the truth? This film has shook up my morals and has made me confused in myself. And the film seems to feel the same way. While making us fall in love with Jack, the film constantly drapes in the background the crime he has committed and the monster we should be seeing him as. The fact that the film itself doesn’t take a side, only adds to the confusion and the brilliance. 

I've seen a few critics missing the point here. They claimed the flashbacks didn't add much to the film because Jack doesn't resemble his child self in the Flashbacks, making them feel detached from one another. THAT'S THE POINT. That monster, who killed the little girl, that may as well not be him at all. Hitting home the point, 'who are we to judge?'.

Did I mention how well constructed this is, in terms of emotions? The amount of times I’d be laughing my head off at a scene, with the tears from the last tear jerking scene still drying on my cheeks. It’s beautifully shot and tremendously acted. As Philip explains his sexual abuse, the two boys laying side by side, the camera hanging above them, pointing down straight at them. It’s something magic, dark twisted magic.

So do I recommend this movie? Yeah, just go see it. This is a bloody masterpiece.

Think About It!

-Locke.