Funny Cow

Funny Cow (Maxine Peake) is the stage name of a seventies stand up comedian finding success on the club circuit in the north of England in the 1970s.  The action flits between her childhood, life as a young woman when she first decides she wants to go into comedy, the successful stage presence, and a rather strange piece to camera, telling tales of her past life.  Shaped by domestic violence, both parental and marital (and later from a middle class boyfriend), she learns to stand up for herself verbally, a skill she'll later put to good use with hecklers.  And that's the central appeal of the stage for her - she's in control, answerable to nobody and nothing but her own wits.

Contrary to the title, there are few laughs on offer (least of all from the snapshots of stale 70s comedy routines).  It's a bleak, drab world, where FC stands out for her bright reds - lips, dress, car - but remains as damaged and alienating as the rest.  At least she shows a bit of warmth towards her rapidly declining alcoholic mother, but it's more from duty than empathy.

This would be fine if there was a point to it all.  But I was left wondering what this story was actually for?  The artifice of breaking the film into sections, the disjointed timelines and the bitterness of the characters pushed me outside, looking in on a world it was hard to have much sympathy for.  Peake is excellent, within those limitations, Alun Armstrong as her comedic mentor is a sad and saddening cynic, while Kevin Eldon stands out as the pushy agent.

If Funny Cow achieves anything it's to remind us just how necessary alternative comedy was in sweeping away the tired, predictable bigotry that passed for humour at the time.