Blue Jean (2022)

Blue Jean (2022). Blue Jean: Directed by Georgia Oakley. With Rosy McEwen, Kerrie Hayes, Lucy Halliday, Lydia Page. In 1988, a closeted teacher is pushed to the brink when a new student threatens to expose her sexuality.

“u0026quot;Jeanu0026quot; (Rosy McEwan) is a physical education teacher at a school in Northern Engand. Privately, she is having a relationship with the out and proud u0026quot;Vivu0026quot; (Kerrie Hayes) but the emphasis here is very much on the u0026quot;privatelyu0026quot; – something that her confident girlfriend struggles to comprehend. When u0026quot;Loisu0026quot; (Lucy Halliday) joins her netball class, then runs into her in a bar later, things become complicated for u0026quot;Jeanu0026quot; and the remainder of the film illustrates just a short segment of her troubled life as her pupils start to put two and two together and mischief and malevolence rears their very ugly heads. As a gay lad who lived at the time I am actually a little tired of films that make out that u0026quot;Thatcheru0026quot; was some alien space invader sent by God to cleanse society. The views of her government represented massive numbers of people in Britain – across the political spectrum – who were terrified about the perceived adverse influences on children of what they saw as u0026quot;permissiveu0026quot; practices. Rather than acknowledge these concerns as legitimate (at the time) and put some national context into this story, this film really only takes a couple of people whose relationship never comes across as especially strong anyway, and try to make a greater political point. To have been successful there, balance is essential. The underlying plot issues are potent, but they are not developed anywhere near enough to create substantial characters and instead offer us a rather undercooked swipe at a system that was as broadly representative then as it is not (thankfully) now. The production is all a bit basic and though McEwan offers us a considered performance and the film is certainly worth watching, I had really hoped for something just a bit deeper and stronger.”