Movie Number 36 of 2025
The Movie: Chuck Chuck Baby
The Cinema: The Deckchair Cinema, Darwin
Runtime: One Hour 41 minutes
Stars: 4.5 (unexpectedly delightful)
Most of my stories start out with grabbing a couple of colleagues and doing something a little bit unexpected, not that going to the Deckchair Cinema in Darwin is unexpected. It’s my favourite place in Darwin, and tonight I had to say goodbye to it.
So, I grabbed a couple of my colleagues, and we went down to see what was on offer, being that we have a lot of social activities this week as many of us are rolling off the project this was our last chance. The film offering was Chuck Chuck Baby.
“What’s it about?” asked EJ. EJ has come up for a week.
“Allegedly it’s a queer, Welsh musical,” I told him.
“But I don’t like musicals,” he retorted.
“I’ve bought your ticket. Come for dinner. You're gonna fall asleep anyway!”! I know EJ very well. Every time he falls asleep. And snores.
EJ relented. So, we and another colleague Dessie and traipsed down to the cinema, grabbed bottle of wine, slathered ourselves in bug juice and settled in.
And we were unexpectedly delighted.
The plot is fairly simple. Helen (Louise Brealey) is not living her best life. Residing in the box room of the house she shares with her ex, the odious Garry (Celyn Jones), his equally odious girlfriend Amy (Emily Fairn) and his ailing mother Gwen (Sorcha Cusack), she works the night shift at the local chicken factory, where her friends try to keep each other amused. It's a pretty grim life.
In the background, Joanne (Annabel Scholey) has returned to the North Wales town to clean up the house of her abusive father. Joanne left the town early after a number of events. Known as the town bad girl, she is welcomed back to the town by Helen and her friends.
In some ways this film is predictable. But to say that it's a queer, Welsh musical is mislabeling it.
First up, this is more a romance than a musical. Helen and Joanne have loved each other since school. But their queerness was either beaten out of them or suppressed beyond measure.
As for the musical bits - it's more characters singing along to established songs, not signing new songs.
What I loved about this is that it's laugh out loud funny in a lot of places, while being a very sweet, very realistic love story.
Beverly Russ, who plays Helen's mate Paula steals the show, being a brilliant comic relief, while Sorcha Cusack is fabulous and Helen's dying and much-loved mother-in-law.
But it's Helen and Joanne's gently unfolding relationship that wins the audience over. Both women are stuck in their own way. Both find different ways out of their predicaments.
Writer/Director Janis Pugh does a wonderful job with this, bringing in humour, pathos, desire and female friendships to the fore.
This is a bit of a niche film, made for the film festivals. I can't find it on streaming. Yet, is was the perfect final film to see at my favourite cinema in Australia. I don't know when I'll be going to Darwin again, but I know that the Deckchair Cinema has a very special place in my heart.
Where else can you watch an alleged queer, Welsh Musical, while sipping on wine, lying in a deckchair, as the sun sets behind the screen, bats fly about the Moreton Bay figs and geckos make a nuisance of themselves in the cinema light.
It is a very special place and this film was the perfect way to say goodbye to it.
Oh, and EJ stayed awake the whole film. He loved it.
Today's song:
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