Pride

Pride comes in a proud tradition of British comedy-drama films such as The Full Monty, Brassed Off, Calendar Girls, and Billy Elliot among others that so expertly combine both comedic and dramatic elements to create a thoroughly entertaining, moving and inspiring film. 

Mark Ashton (played by Ben Schnetzer) is a young, gay, civil rights activist living in London circa 1984. Upon watching the news coverage of the beginning of the Coal Miners strike, he recognizes they have a common enemy in Margaret Thatcher and decides to start taking up donations to help the striking miners during the annual Gay Pride parade. He is able to recruit some of his friends to help. After collecting for the first day, they decide to form an official organization, L.G.S.M: Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners. Other members include Mike Jackson (played by Joe Gilgun), Jonathan Blake (played by Dominic West) and his boyfriend Gethin Roberts (played by Andrew Scott) who own the gay bookshop who's backroom becomes the LGSM headquarters, the young and closeted Joe (played by George MacKay), Stella (played by Karina Fernandez) and Zoe (played by Jessie Cave). The group continues to gather donations throughout their London neighborhoods. When the National Union of Mineworkers turn down their donation due to public relations concerns, they decide to take their donations to Onllwyn, a small mining community in Wales. A representative for the Onllwyn miners, Dai Donovan (played by Paddy Considine) comes to London to meet with the LGSM members and accept the donation. He is genuinely touched by their donation and invites them to Onllwyn to meet the people they are helping. They accept the offer and the resulting culture clash ultimately leads to an unlikely but strong friendship between the two groups as the small mining community come to embrace their unexpected new friends. 

There is so much I loved about this film, it's hard to know where to start. The performances across the board are great. We have old pros like Imelda Staunton and Bill Nighy as members of the mining community. Dominic West shines as the charming Jonathan Blake, whose dance routine in the Onllwyn union hall is both a show stopper and one leads to several of the miners secretly asking him for dance lessons. Andrew Scott is very touching as Gethin Roberts, who grew up in Wales but relocated to London when his family discovered he was gay and is feeling a bit uneasy being back. Jessica Gunning is impressive as Sian James, loving wife to one of the miner union leaders in Onllwyn who starts to find her own voice and confidence due to the influence of the LGSM members. I also have to single out Ben Schnetzer as Mark Ashton, the founder and leader of LGSM. He imbues Mark with so much life and charm. It really is a fantastic performance, one that impressed me even more when I found out Ben is actually an American (his British accent was flawless).    

The film was written by Stephen Beresford and directed by Matthew Warchus, basing their film on a true story. The two do a great job balancing both the comedic and dramatic elements, shifting seamlessly between the two. There is an earnestness to the story that they achieve without being sappy or overly sentimental. It never feels like the movie is intentionally trying to be manipulative, but instead lets its characters tell the story and knows perfectly where to go for the laugh and when to be serious.   

Overall, Pride is a thoroughly entertaining and at times quite moving film filled with great performances by a group of great actors. It's a film I've really liked ever since it came out in 2014 (and did not get anywhere near the attention it deserved here in the States) and is well worth checking out.