Time: 94 Minutes
Age Rating: M – Offensive language & sexual themes
Cast:
William Eadie as James Gillespie
Tommy Flanagan as George Gillespie
Mandy Matthews as Anne Gillespie
Director: Lynne Ramsay

Going into Ratcatcher at my local film society, I was intrigued. The main thing I knew about it was that it was from Lynne Ramsay, who I knew previously for directing You Were Never Really Here and Die My Love. All I knew about Ratcatcher beyond that was that it was meant to be great and quite depressing, and having seen it, it was certainly both of those things.

Ratcatcher is an unflinching, gritty, and bleak portrait of poverty in Scotland in the 1970s. There is a feeling of dread and melancholy throughout, but there’s little glimmers of hope, and it was constantly compelling to me.

The cast are all top notch and felt real, especially William Eadie as protagonist James who does well to lead the movie and convey all the guilt, poverty and everything else that he’s carrying.

Ratcatcher is a phenomenal directorial debut from Lynne Ramsay. Everything feels so gritty, grounded and real, from the locations and environments to the costumes, with so much detail. The imagery is beautiful and memorable, grim, but surreal and dreamlike in other moments.

Ratcatcher is a bleak and haunting coming of age movie, excellently directed and performed.