Liam: Martin Compston
Chantelle: Annmarie Fulton
Pinball: William Ruane
Suzanne: Michelle Abercromby
Jean: Michelle Coulter
Stan: Gary McCormack
One of director Ken Loach's finest films,
Sweet Sixteen follows in the footsteps of Loach's other
masterpiece, Kes, in casting a completely unknown
teenager in the lead role.
That was then with David Bradley as Billy and
this is now with Martin Compston as the eternally optimistic and resilient
Liam. Nearing his 16th birthday, Liam just wants to be reunited with his
ex-heroin addict mum, Jean, when she gets out of prison. He aims to raise
money to buy them somewhere to live where he can keep her clean and sober,
away from the influence of his drunken grandfather and his motheršs
drug-dealing, abusive boyfriend, Stan two men without a single redeeming
feature. And Liam also naively hopes to make the family complete by
reconciling his mum with his 17-year-old sister and single parent Chantelle
plus her toddler son, Callum.
So with his joyriding pal Pinball, Liam starts
small, selling contraband ciggies around local pubs, before graduating into
Greenock's drug dealing underworld. After surviving some brutal beatings,
Liam is initiated into a gangster's gang, running his own pizza delivery
service as a cover for drug deliveries. His entrepreneurial spirit and
resourcefulness mean he's successful at every step, and despite intending to
stop every time he gets enough cash, Liam gets deeper and deeper into the
drugs trade.
There is always hope and a jaunty humour to get us through the
bleaker moments, but absolutely no moralising from Loach and his writing
partner, Paul Laverty. For this is an unsentimental tale of a bright,
courageous young man who could have been somebody, seeks to rise above his
circumstances and patch his family together, but in the process, destructs
his own dream, piece by piece. And once again proving that you donšt need a
posse of seasoned actors, Loach coaxes universally excellent performances
from his company.
English subtitles might not seem vital for a homegrown film, but
you may find the Glaswegian brogue easier to follow with the subtitles on
(I certainly found them useful during
My Name is Joe
- DVDfever Dom)
And the BBC Scotland documentary, Sweet Success, is a neat summary of Martin
Compstonšs transformation from Greenock Morton footballer and Ewan McGregor
fan to naturalistic leading man lauded at Cannes. Best of all is Ken Loach's
UK-exclusive director's commentary, which is illuminating on many levels:
chatting about casting and filming; lambasting the "special kind of British
hypocrisy" which gave the film an 18 certificate; dropping in little
insights about training the lads in skills like moped riding; and always
giving social and economic context.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
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Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
