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Funny Cow 15 rating

Maxine Peake plays a woman who rises above abusive relationships and crass sexist audiences of the 1970s to become a female stand-up comedian.

Comedy 2017 102 mins

Director: Adrian Shergold

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Overview

Maxine Peake gives a formidable performance as an aspiring female comedian standing up to a violent husband and the sexist Northern England club circuit. If you think that modern comedy is still lacking in gender equality, then this tough, streetwise British film shows that it’s also made giant strides since the in-your-face chauvinism of working men’s clubs in decades past. And yet, ill-treatment by men is something our eponymous heroine is grimly used to, from childhood beatings to an abusive husband (scriptwriter Tony Pitts, on terrifying form).

More a film about the power of laughter and how to transform pain into humour than a straight-up comedy, Funny Cow is a fitting showcase for Peake. So often dazzling on stage and television, she’s hilarious and heart-breaking here. There’s fine support too from cast-against-type Paddy Considine as her middle-class paramour and a swooning, melancholic soundtrack by Richard Hawley.

Director
Adrian Shergold
Featuring
Maxine PeakePaddy ConsidineTony PittsLindsey Coulson
Genres
ComedyDrama
Certificate
15very strong language, domestic violence, strong sex references, suicide
Released
2017
Country
United Kingdom
Language
English

Accessibility

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