Chuck Chuck Baby

Helen is depressed and no wonder. She’s never left the small Welsh town where she was born. She works in a chicken processing plant, lives with her Neanderthal ex-husband and his much younger girlfriend and their baby, and his dying mum — who is pretty much the only saving grace in her situation. That is, until an old school flame, Joanne, returns to town…

Writer-director Janis Pugh turns misery upside down in what turns out to be an exuberant and exhilarating musical crowd-pleaser, not a million miles away from the likes of The Full Monty, Kinky Boots and Mamma Mia. Her masterstroke is to have the actors “sing” their numbers — songs by Neil Diamond, Janis Ian, The Imperials and The Pogues — in character, rather than belt out a show-stopper. As a result, the songs feel much more emotionally raw than you typically find in a musical. It’s a safe bet that Jacques Demy (whose The Young Girls of Rochefort screens Sept 2 and 3) was an influence. Of course there’s lots of hard knocks comedy too. More than anything, though, this is a movie that will have you pulling for true love as a redemptive force.

Video intro from director Janis Pugh

A big-hearted, crowd-pleasing tale of love, liberation and female empowerment….[this is] a big, against-the-odds swoon of a romance underpinned by a gritty sense of oppression and hurt. As plaintive as a country western ballad, the gritty, feel-good Chuck Chuck Baby should delight romantics and introduce the work of Janis Pugh to a much wider audience.

Allan Hunter, Screen International

A rousing empowerment-anthem of a movie that’s not afraid to paint its romance plotline in big, bold brushstrokes.

Andrew Pulver, The Guardian

Chuck Chuck Baby engenders an enormous amount of goodwill thanks to its winning performances and Pugh’s eye for adding the magical to the dourness of the real world.

Laurence Boyce, Cineuropa