Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Sameena Jabeen Ahmed, Connor McCarron, Gary Lewis, Barry Nunney, Adrian Hussain, Anwar Hussain, Ali Ahmad, Shoby Kaman, Wazim Zakir, Nichola Burley, Kate Dickie.
Modern Britain is thankfully so diverse, that many cultures can thrive and be seen as adding so much to the way of life in the country; expanding it, creating something new and exciting, so much so that it’s no wonder there is a rebellion at the heart of cinema against the so called and establishment actors being given all the plumb roles. In 21st Century Britain, they are an elite force that does not reflect the country as a whole.
What this does is open a door elsewhere and in Catch Me Daddy, what people may expect to see as a snapshot of life in the north of England in 2015 is inverted, reversed and made whole. A truth comes tumbling out of the acting fraternity, a wildness of spirit that is beautifully stirring, abject and despairing and filled, overflowing, with the reality of cultures that clash and tear at each other, not in terms of race but in one generation’s view of another. It is this clash that makes Catch Me Daddy such a compelling and heart thundering film.
Laila and Aaron, played by Sameena Jabeen Ahmed and Connor McCarron, are two typical teenagers on the run from a family that has tradition and expectation on their side and yet the disturbing nature of expectation is that what drives the film to its extreme positioning and it is to be welcomed. In the same way that Romeo and Juliet can divide opinion, a love story but fuelled on the unseemly disposition of mutual self destruction and selfish behaviour, Catch Me Daddy takes that selfishness and pours into a large container, adds brutality, overpowering cruelty and violence and sets fire to it, the fumes of two extremes of cultures bonding in hatred and dislike making a potent and unforgettable force.
Whilst no single character comes out of it with any sense of nobility, it is Gary Lewis’ Tony who comes the closest and it is this makes the film even more interesting and not to be missed. If the idea of any redeeming dignity is what drives a character, then there is none in the end but it is the film that is dignified, a true testament to the way it was filmed and very much in the evolving spirit of the Kitchen Sink/Angry Young Men pieces of art so missed in the age of the epic.
If cinema is to be seen, like local theatre, as taking back for the working class aspirations in being able to produce good stories and films dealing with the reality of the modern age, then Catch Me Daddy is a tremendous building block on which to lay cinematic glory upon.
Brutal, feral, malicious and unwavering in its conviction, Catch Me Daddy treats audiences to a truth they may want to turn away from but in which should be seen with eyes wide open and with epic idealism taking for a short walk off its comfortable cliff.
Ian D. Hall