This film is currently unavailable
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_480x270/public/hero-images/funny_cow-1.jpg?itok=A4EuIn51)
Funny Cow
Maxine Peake plays a woman who rises above abusive relationships and crass sexist audiences of the 1970s to become a female stand-up comedian.
Director: Adrian Shergold
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.
Related
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/sick-of-myself-01.jpeg?itok=6WYKe_5g)
Sick of Myself Sick of Myself
Comedy 2022 97 mins Director: Kristoffer Borgli
She just did what! Attention-seeking Signe will do anything to keep the focus on herself, in this wildly demented comedy.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/La-Chimera-brighter.jpg?itok=VdoQPgMg)
La Chimera La Chimera
Action and Adventure 2023 132 mins Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Alice Rohrwacher’s fascinating new drama finds Josh O’Connor’s fish out of water delving into the world of stolen artefacts.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Trouble-With-Jessica-02.jpg?itok=STSk4WOE)
The Trouble with Jessica The Trouble with Jessica
Comedy 2023 89 mins Director: Matt Winn
An uninvited guest causes havoc at a dinner party in this highly entertaining and darkly comic satire.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Hotel-Splendide04.jpg?itok=fV-dNlK4)
Hotel Splendide Hotel Splendide
Comedy 1932 53 mins Director: Michael Powell
Music hall veteran Jerry Verno stars as a lowly clerk who gets more than he bargained for when he inherits a hotel, in Michael Powell's charming comedy.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Ballywalter-03_1920.jpg?itok=f4IJFVkz)
Ballywalter Ballywalter
Comedy 2020 90 mins Director: Prasanna Puwanarajah
Seána Kerslake is superb as caustic cab driver, Eileen, who makes an unlikely connection with regular passenger and local comedian, Shane (Patrick Kielty), in Prasanna Puwanarajah’s charming debut.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/little-english.jpg?itok=b5-Ebqoa)
Little English Little English
Comedy 2022 99 mins Director: Pravesh Kumar
A raucous and audacious comedy following the lives of a dysfunctional British Punjabi family.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/GWEN_16-9_still1_0.png?itok=-b0bmjbU)
Gwen Gwen
Drama 2018 84 mins Director: William McGregor
A young girl tries desperately to protect her family from illness and dark outside forces in William McGregor's stark period horror.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/FLD3_flip1.jpg?itok=2i6y0gfd)
Fanny Lye Deliver'd Fanny Lye Deliver'd
Drama 2020 112 mins Director: Thomas Clay
The wife of a puritanical farmer seems resigned to her lot, until she has her head turned by the arrival of a young couple in Thomas Clay’s provocative period drama.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/edge%2520image%25201-adjust_0.jpg?itok=w3f-SeIZ)
Edge Edge
Drama 2012 92 mins Director: Carol Morley
A group of people gather at the Cliff Edge Hotel, where death is never far away, in this early, micro-budget feature from Carol Morley.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/HTBAG6A.jpg?itok=Q_mlSiuQ)
How to Build a Girl How to Build a Girl
Drama 2019 104 mins Director: Coky Giedroyc
Beanie Feldstein stars as a young rock journalist in this coming-of-age comedy, based on the novel by Caitlin Moran.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Journeyman_Paddy%2520Considine_2_1920x1080.jpg?itok=wkLULDE8)
Journeyman Journeyman
Drama 2018 92 mins Director: Paddy Considine
Paddy Considine directs and stars with Jodie Whittaker in this emotional knockout - the story of a boxer rebuilding his life after a near-fatal injury.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/85a75170026ce3b21ebad505a5d34dff.jpg?itok=nObGIEze)
Macbeth Macbeth
Drama 2015 113 mins Director: Justin Kurzel
Fassbender is ferocious as the Scottish king in Justin Kurzel’s red-blooded and viscerally atmospheric Shakespeare adaptation.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/submarine-resize.jpg?itok=Vef01K2O)
Submarine Submarine
Comedy 2011 97 mins Director: Richard Ayoade
Richard Ayoade’s sweet and quirky directorial debut about a Swansea teen’s travails with his distant girlfriend and warring parents.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Green-Border-01.jpg?itok=-YVcr1Za)
Green Border Green Border
Drama 2023 152 mins
Three-time Oscar-nominee Agnieszka Holland returns with a powerful, timely and unflinching exploration of the current migrant crisis.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Our-River-our-sky-01.jpg?itok=p9xO8tL8)
Our River... Our Sky Our River... Our Sky
War 2021 118 mins Director: Maysoon Pachachi
A small Baghdad community searches for hope in the face of unpredictable violence, turmoil, and loss.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/LoveLiesBleeding-01_brighter.jpg?itok=Ji_gwS-r)
Love Lies Bleeding Love Lies Bleeding
Romance 2023 104 mins Director: Rose Glass
Rose Glass’s gripping and gory follow-up to Saint Maud finds a lesbian couple drawn into a web of violence in 1980s small-town New Mexico.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/sick-of-myself-01.jpeg?itok=6WYKe_5g)
Sick of Myself Sick of Myself
Comedy 2022 97 mins Director: Kristoffer Borgli
She just did what! Attention-seeking Signe will do anything to keep the focus on herself, in this wildly demented comedy.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/wilding-02.jpg?itok=AmImzKtl)
Wilding Wilding
Documentary 2023 75 mins Director: David Allen
A dying landscape is healed against all odds, going on to thrive in astonishing ways, in this hopeful story of ecological regeneration.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/AHouseInJerusalem-01.jpg?itok=9SyTSTlz)
A House in Jerusalem A House in Jerusalem
Drama 2022 104 mins Director: Muayad Alayan
After moving from the UK to Jerusalem, young Rebecca strikes up a mysterious and an unlikely friendship, in this poignant tale of loss and longing.