Film Diary: Gregory's Girl (Bill Forsyth, 1981)

[enitharmon]

Teen flicks make me cringe as a rule. I'm sure this is a lot to do with my own teenage years leaving a lot to be desired. I was a dysfunctional creature who didn't have much of a social life.

That must be why I've held off this film for a quarter of a century despite all the good things I've heard about it. Perhaps I shouldn't have worried - it's setting could have been my school: ten years later and 800 km further north, but hey, nothing much changed. And it feels like a vindication of the shy and awkward.

It hasn't turned my life upside down, but it is infectiously charming and I will no doubt revisit it in years to come.

Comments

[swanofkennet.livejournal.com]

As opposed to Welwyn Garden City, which is generally portrayed as a perfectly decent place to live but which in fact is a shitty housing estate.

But you are quite right, and the other thing is that it portrays the often-villified Cumbernauld youth as perfectly normal teenagers with perfectly normal hangups that any of us could identify with.