Gregory's Girl [VHS] [1981]

It's a film about kids pretending to be grown ups and doing a better job of it than their parents. It's about how the awkwardness and uncertainty of youth never really leaves us. Above all it's about hope: how sometimes not getting what you want is the best thing that can happen. Smart, funny, moving and all made to look so easy. `Bella, Bella!' Five stars just ain't enough.

Filmed mostly in or around a recently-completed housing estate near Scottish 'new town' Cumbernauld, our Gregory (hero-to-many John Gordon Sinclair), hopeless goalie of the school's hopeless football team, becomes infatuated with attractive tomboyish Dorothy (Dee Hepburn) ... who is clearly way out of his league. Ever been there? Gregory's wee 10-year old sister Maddy advises on dress sense - Gregory has none, constantly opting for unfashionable brown - whilst around him his friends go on being teenage boys. Eg. Andy likes to stand on the bridge and watch the lorries go by below ("Did you know that 11 tonnes of Corn Flakes goes under this bridge every morning?")

The film is stuffed with small quirks and visual vignets: the teachers laughing from the window at Gregory's 'shadow goalkeeping' on the playground below; the Headmaster (Chic Murray) tasting a jam-doughnut whilst pastry-obsessed Steve takes down the orders; the peeping-tom schoolboys mesmerized (Andy almost faints) when a nurse removes her brassière whilst smaller but apparently more worldy boys don't bat an eyelid ("All that fuss over a bit o' tit, eh ..."); the Boys' gym-teacher dancing a hip-loosening routine with Dorothy; Gregory's marvellously-accented attempts at bellowing in Italian ("Bella bella ...!") whilst blow-drying his hair ("Arrividerci, Gordon - hurry back."); the photographs sale; the Headmaster's retort, "Off you go, you small boys" as he plays the piano; Gregory's uniquely-bewildered looks as he is shunted from girl to girl ("Here's 50p, you can get plenty of chips with that ..."); the infinitely tender scene of young love as Gregory and Susan (the still utterly delectable and every British schoolboy's 1981 wet dream: Clare Grogan!) are laying on their backs on the grass, 'dancing' so as not to fall off the planet's surface ("You have what is called ... natural ability!"); Susan's remark, "Why are boys so obsessed with numbers ...?"; the two boys' mis-spelled attempt to hitch a ride to Caracus/Caracas ... and perhaps the oddest of all - "Hey, Room 4." - is the mysterious penguin that is never explained, "Room 16 ...?" There are those who hold that the penguin is merely there as a metaphor for Life: we are all shuffling around looking for our mate or for where we ought to be ... Actually, I'd say that was about right ...!

Immensely and endearingly popular with People Of A Certain Age (that's us, folks!), even in the United States - where apparently the Scottish accents had to be 'softened' somewhat. Perhaps the film helped inspire that Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers song, Even The Losers (Get Lucky). Whereas Steven Spielberg used to remind us of our 'inner-child,' Bill Forsyth prolonged our teens ... for deep down, most of us still are, or want to be, just teenagers ...