IMDb RATING
6.9/10
1.7K
YOUR RATING
Glaswegian teenager Lex is torn between the artistic life of middle brother Alan and the thuggish world of elder brother Bobby.Glaswegian teenager Lex is torn between the artistic life of middle brother Alan and the thuggish world of elder brother Bobby.Glaswegian teenager Lex is torn between the artistic life of middle brother Alan and the thuggish world of elder brother Bobby.
- Awards
- 2 wins & 1 nomination
Joe McFadden
- Alan Maclean
- (as Joseph McFadden)
Steven Duffy
- Bobby Maclean
- (as J.S. Duffy)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe scene where Alan and Lex visits an arts chool to check out the girls is shot at "Glasgow School of Art", which is the masterpiece of designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh. It opened in 1899 when Mackintosh was only 28.
- Quotes
Lex Maclean: [about a sick-looking portrait by Bacon] It looks just like our Bobby after a bad night out!
- ConnectionsEdited into Screen Two: Small Faces (1998)
- SoundtracksAuld Lang Syne
Performed by Iain Robertson
Featured review
Little gem
Life in the tough end of Glasgow in the late 1960s is delightfully and sometimes painfully presented here. This is clearly a work of well-observed autobiography by the Mackinnon family - Billy the writer/producer and Gillies the director.
At the centre of the film is the Maclean family - widowed mother with sons Bobby (none too bright), Alan (budding artist in spite of being brought up in the tough end of Govan) and narrator Lex, only 13 and still not sure what life is all about. Iain Robertson's performance as Lex is so good that it is barely credible that he has not reappeared in anything more worthy of his acting talent.
The film sets up a series of oppositions - gangs (Glens versus Tongs); romantic family life vs tough and unromantic street life; loyalty vs betrayal. Far from resulting in simplification, this actually makes the life of young Lex even more complex as he is, sequentially, drawn to each aspect of these opposing ideas.
Director Gillies shows he knows how to film his environment and gives us telling and memorable images - such as a huge close-up of blood running down a plug-hole that looks like some work of abstract art.
Nowhere near as clichéd as most coming-of-age movies, this is a joy for teenagers and adults alike.
At the centre of the film is the Maclean family - widowed mother with sons Bobby (none too bright), Alan (budding artist in spite of being brought up in the tough end of Govan) and narrator Lex, only 13 and still not sure what life is all about. Iain Robertson's performance as Lex is so good that it is barely credible that he has not reappeared in anything more worthy of his acting talent.
The film sets up a series of oppositions - gangs (Glens versus Tongs); romantic family life vs tough and unromantic street life; loyalty vs betrayal. Far from resulting in simplification, this actually makes the life of young Lex even more complex as he is, sequentially, drawn to each aspect of these opposing ideas.
Director Gillies shows he knows how to film his environment and gives us telling and memorable images - such as a huge close-up of blood running down a plug-hole that looks like some work of abstract art.
Nowhere near as clichéd as most coming-of-age movies, this is a joy for teenagers and adults alike.
- Balthazar-5
- Feb 1, 2005
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Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $155,239
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $10,972
- Aug 18, 1996
- Gross worldwide
- $155,239
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