Who's In It: Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender, Kierston Wareing, Rebecca Griffiths
The Basics: A 15-year-old British girl named Mia (Katie Jarvis) lives in a depressing Essex housing project (the origin of the film's title) with her neglectful mother and combative little sister. Mia spends most of her time getting into fights, hanging out with a boy who recently attempted to rape her, identifying with a symbolically chained-up white horse, drinking, breaking into empty apartments to practice a bad dance routine she thinks will take her problems away and getting a little too friendly with Party-Mom's boyfriend. Haters of happy endings, the misery line forms to the left of those people waiting to see Precious.
What's The Deal: There's a long British film tradition of grimy realism, where every so often the grimmest face of U.K. poverty winds up on the big screen in art houses both here and in its home country. This one, featuring the tiniest sliver of hope in an otherwise ambiguous future for its heroine, shares a feel and look in common with the bleak working-class atmosphere of a Dardenne Brothers film (like last year's Lorna's Silence, which you should also check out). And while it's not exactly fun watching this unloved young girl inflict suffering on herself and others, it is totally compelling.
What Else You'll Get: A sense of déjà vu. If you've seen one of these movies then you know what you're in for, more or less. And while the movie doesn't overplay the trapped animal metaphor, it wasn't exactly necessary to include it at all. In its favor, though, is an trickle of ice-cold gallows humor that often revolves around the youngest children in the movie. When Mia watches her little sister (Griffiths) get treated roughly by their mother, she sneers, "I've got the Childline number if you need it." Later, that same little girl can be found addressing Michael Fassbender (from Inglourious Basterds, as Mom's drunk and horny boyfriend), "I like you. I'll kill you last."
Background: From director Andrea Arnold, who made the critically acclaimed (and even more harrowing) Red Road in 2007. She found newcomer Katie Jarvis accidentally, while watching the teenage non-actress having a loud argument with her boyfriend in public. And as luck would have it Jarvis holds her own opposite the experienced actors like Fassbender, even if she's not the type of girl who'll ever wind up in a Jane Austen adaptation.
More Background: According to a friend of mine who's actually from Essex, "The English love depressing s#*!, it's a national pastime. Everyone from Essex, we're just like the people in this movie, awful. Then arty people wind up buying tickets to movies about us. They love films about chavs.*" [* a usually unemployed, anti-social, working-class young person]
So there you have it, straight from the unchained horse's mouth.