Matty Burton (Paddy Considine) is an ageing boxer who hopes to defend his title in a last fight, and then plans to enjoy his retirement with his wife Emma (Jodi Whittaker) and their baby daughter. After he comes home from the fight, his wife soon finds him collapsed on the floor…
This is not a boxing movie; it is about Matty, as well as his family and friends, trying to fight their way back from his life-altering brain damage.
This comedy is as black as the ace of spades, with Beria issuing detailed orders about the manner of the executions being carried out, and with an understandable air of paranoia amongst the scheming Politburo plotters, any of whom was at risk of being denounced and shipped off to Siberia or worse. The film has not gone down well in Russia, where the Ministry Of Culture has apparently considered banning it, an act worthy of Stalin himself.
Ever since George Romero made “Night of the Living Dead” there have been films about zombies, but few manage to be worth watching. Directors have tried applying comedy (“Shaun of the Dead”) and even Jane Austen (“Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”) to the theme, but most efforts plod along as ineptly as the zombies themselves. The Girl With All the Gifts takes a new bite at the cherry.
There is a healthy sub-genre of British Cinema that celebrates the quirkiness of the Brits, their subcultures and their local communities. Combine that with a backdrop of economic hardship, an abundance of prejudice, and a dash of politics and you get a very funny movie like Pride.