Though Cillian Murphy takes top billing and turns in a visceral effort in the title role, this is really a formidable ensemble effort as he leads a small group to teachers in what seems to be a constant rearguard action with some of the most unruly teenagers you’ll ever see. Helped out by his deputy “Amanda” (Tracey Ullman) and self-medicating regularly, he has the added pressure of a local BBC television crew coming to do a piece on the place; the local MP is also coming to get in on that action and the local council are also along this day to tell them all that the school’s future - at around £30k p.a. per pupil, is making the whole enterprise increasingly unfeasible. Our first glimpse of the residents sees us meet “Shy” (Jay Lycurgo) who is dancing about in a field slowly getting ”baked” at 10am! Then there’s “Jamie” (Luke Ayres). Larger than life in every sense and sharp enough to wind up just about everyone else; “Riley” (Joshua J. Parker) is akin to the Duracell Bunny only at ten times the speed. “Shola” (Little Simz) is the newbie teacher and Emily Watson’s “Jenny” tries to fathom out the psychology of their erratic behaviour. They are all foul-mouthed, violent and obnoxious, sure - but they are all also bright; they fight and brawl but there is loyalty amongst them, affection even. Each character gets their moment under the spotlight, but essentially we focus on “Steve” - a man who has demons of his own and on “Shy” whose behaviour has left his mum and stepfather to cut all ties with the lad. You get the sense that both men are in a very similar boat, only one of them wears a tie and the other some orange-foam headphones - and both deliver emotionally-charged performances. Ullman is strong and sympathetic in support to just about everyone and there is a unifying cameo from Roger Allam who plays the typically pompous and condescending MP “Montague-Powell” (pronounced “Pole”) who, like all but those who actually lived in this rapidly dilapidating stately pile, had little idea of just what went on here, and of just how crucial this infrastructure was in offering a semblance of hope, security and consistency to young men who’s lucidity ebbed and flowed as readily as the tides we see so often on the poster on the wall. The last few minutes remind us, powerfully, that these staff are professional people who must try to balance the demands of their careers with those of their personal lives, and the clever use of a tape recorder to serve as an aide-memoir to “Steve” has a double benefit of also helping the audience to appreciate just how stressful all of their lives were. No matter just how futile their efforts frequently appeared to be, these were not people inclined to give up - regardless of the sacrifices they would routinely and repeatedly have to make. The kids? Well the acting on display here is natural, entertaining, chilling and acrobatic all whilst offering us a sense of their vulnerability, their loneliness and their inter-dependence - for all their bravado and practical jokes. It’s a breakneck piece of cinema that serves to make us realise that there can be no price put on their vocational skills nor on the provision of “care” for these people whom society at large would doubtless consider a threat and who would almost certainly incarcerate them. It’s a very tricky subject to get across with integrity, but I think this does make you sit up and think - and laugh occasionally, too.
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