Chicken

Dir: Joe A. Stephenson

2015

****

Joe A. Stephenson's feature debut (not including the TV movie he made the year before) is sensational. It's a sweet but dark exploration of mental illness and poverty, living on the edges of society. A bleak tale but with of the most wonderful characters in film history. Richard (played by the brilliant Scott Chambers) lives with his brother Polly (Morgan Watkins) in a dilapidated caravan in the grounds of a farm. The owners let them stay as long as they keep themselves to themselves but once the farm is sold and new owners arrive, the brothers find themselves anxious of the future and realise things can't go on the way they are. Richard has undisclosed learning difficulties and spends his days wandering around the farm with his pet chicken. He collects dead animals in the woods and dresses them up and plays tea with them. Kind and curious, he wants more interaction and longs for a normal life. Polly on the other hand is self-destructive, working poorly-pain cash in hand jobs which pay for nightly drinking sessions. Both boys are essentially starving, with no prospects. How they got in this position is never quite made clear, we learn a little about their upbringing and their parents until the film's shocking revelation explains it all. It is rare that a film makes my jaw hit the floor quite like Chicken did. When the new farm owner's daughter Annabell (Yasmin Paige) befriends Richard, he soon becomes besotted and confused. Annabel is brash and bolshie but is softened by Richard's temperament and his struggle. When Polly finds a way of escape, he lets out his own frustrations on Richard and the story comes to a head. It is desperately sad but weirdly uplifting at the same time. Chicken joins the many brilliant low-budget but largely unseen British films being made these days that really do deserve more love. I can't stress just how brilliant Scott Chambers is in the lead role. Joe A. Stephenson had both Chambers and Watkins write biographies from the perspective of their own characters. Stephenson would propose a shared event such as a family argument and would ask the actors to describe their respective reactions. It meant that both actors had a much keener understanding of their roles and it is clear to see they are both passionate about the project and have immersed themselves in their roles. This is how you make a film, any film, not just a low-budget performance driven one. The conclusion is powerful, simple but utterly convincing. A pleasant discovery and a real award contender, had anyone seen it.