Thursday 2 February 2023

Hunky Dory (2011 Marc Evans)

Minnie Driver empathically heads cast. But Joby Talbot's music is mentionable as it somehow delicately sprinkles the film forward in a way that says 'It's the summer of 1976 and school's about to be over - for ever'. (It actually rained all the time.) The actual orchestration and performance of the various songs that appear in her version of 'The Tempest' are also memorable.

With a cast of thousands including Aneurin Barnard, Tom Rhys Harries (his debut. much on stage, also Slaughterhouse Rulez), Adam Byard, man mad Danielle Branch (her only film), Kimberley Nixon, the troubled Darren Evans (Dream Horse, A Street Cat Named Bob, My Mad Fat Diary, Submarine), 'Bob' (Robert) Pugh, Owen Teale, George MacKay, Steve Speirs, Di Botcher, Aled Pugh (these three all from Stella).

Nicely edited by Mali Evans and shot with a nostalgic glow by Charlotte Bruus Christensen.

This is not the clichéd cutsey kids putting on a show number - there's lots of gritty stuff going on as well.

Minnie did her own singing. Aneurin quoted in Indiewire interview: "The whole process of “Hunky Dory” was wonderful in that sense, musically. All the kids in the orchestra were playing the instruments. The choir was actually singing every song. Every actor in the film sang everything live."



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