Review of Gregory's Girl (1980) by Jennifer X — 13 Apr 2011

'Gregory's Girl' is not without its critics. With a young cast culled from the first generation of genuinely aspirational working class families in the West of Scotland, it has incurred jealous vitriol and ridicule in equal measure. Some of the acting is indeed amateurish and awkward, but maybe that adds to the fundamental stock of truth this film possesses.

Through the eyes of Bill Forsyth, the in-turns gauche and austere architecture of Scottish "New Town" Cumbernauld is filmed like it is California. Little wonder that the directors of teen-com fayre like 'Never Been Kissed' and 'Ten things I Hate about You' cited 'Gregory's Girl' as an inspiration.

It is precisely in the naive reach for futurism in the environment of Cumbernauld that the naive reach for emotional and cultural exploration and awakening by Gregory and his friends becomes magical. They are comfortable but ordinary people in a place designed to be concrete and ordinary, yet Forsyth's camera sweeps the edifice and corridors of a cuboid High school as if it is a giant chocolate box, full of character, wild normality and the simply accepted surreal (the lost penguin costumed child; Chic Murray's Jovian, distracted headmaster.).

The film came on the cusp of economic and industrial upheaval in Scotland, but revealed that our old gods and spirits are still looking at us, possessing us, foxing then protecting us, be they in the guise of a cloud, a kite or spinning the world upside down so that love may flourish.