No. 63 (2023) RYE LANE August 10th.

 

Film No. 63  (2023)  August 10th.  7:30 PM  Disney Plus,  Front Room, Mt Hawthorn.

 

"Are you just going to sit there and let her say that to me?" (Dom's ex challenges her new man to stick up for her, even though Yas has complimented him on his arms!).

NOMINEE: (Raine Allen-Miller) Best Feature Film. International Narrative Competition.

"Not another romcom, promising something different from all that has come before!" Well, yes RYE LANE is  a romantic comedy, and yes it does offer something more than most that have preceded it.  In fact RYE LANE is a refreshingly, entertaining and exhilarating feel good film about young love. It's a beauty is, RYE LANE.

Yas (Vivian Oparah) and Dom (David Jonsson) are likable twenty somethings who have recently exited from reasonably toxic relationships under very different circumstances. So, in the sliding doors moment where they make connection for the first time, in a unisex  toilet with Dom in a cubicle and Yas at the basins, the set up is unique both visually and comically, we feel the remaining 80 minutes should be fun. It definitely is!

Director Raine Allen-Miller, in her first feature, and comedy writers Nathan Byron (BAD EDUCATION) and Tom Melia (BLOODS) have combined to create RYE LANE and make it more than a dialogue driven relationship film. I'm loathe to use Wes Anderson as a marker for this visual delight, but there you go. I have. Every scene here has a colour pallet and background activity that is absolutely the equal of Anderson's, ASTROID CITY. RYE LANE screams out for a second viewing. It wasn't till half way through I began to pick up on background set ups. Then there is the impromptu BBQ karaoke, the Colin Firth cameo and bums in background windows. Every one a delight.

But maybe the star is the precinct of Peckham and Brixton, South London. Allen-Miller has raised these, sometimes maligned, communities on her shoulders and highlighted the  uniqueness of the spaces as vibrant, welcoming communities. Forty years ago these centres were the venues of vicious, racial hate riots. A new generation has had a say in what positive community relations can look like. Here Allen-Miller plays a leading role in that continued repatriation.

I would love to have seen RYE LANE on the big screen. It is a Disney Plus backed project so you will need a subscription. My recommendation is, take out a Free Weeks' sub just so you can catch RYE LANE.  11GUMS.