Fans of Maxine Peake should check out her “surprising” British drama movie with Stephen Graham.
Funny Cow was first released in 2017, and follows a comedian who rises to stardom through working men’s clubs in the 1970s and 1980s, using her troubled past as material.
Peake plays the central role, with Graham starring as her father Mike alongside House of the Dragon‘s Paddy Considine, Motherland’s Diane Morgan, Sherwood‘s Alun Armstrong, The Bay‘s Lindsey Coulson and Game of Thrones‘ Kevin Eldon.
The movie also features performances from comedians John Bishop and Vic Reeves, and music stars Corinne Bailey Rae, Kevin Rowland and Richard Hawley – the latter of whom composed the score and original songs for the film.
Funny Cow comes from Cordelia director Adrian Shergold, while Emmerdale‘s Tony Pitts (who also stars) wrote the screenplay.
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Fans wanting to catch the movie are in luck, as it was added to NOW and Sky this week, while the film is also available on Prime Video free for subscribers.
Funny Cow largely drew acclaim from critics, sitting at an impressive 79% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 42 reviews.
The Independent called it “an abrasive, tender and continually surprising affair whose comic moments sit next to scenes of irredeemable bleakness” in their four-star review, while The Australian said Peake was “excellent as this tough yet at times amazingly tender woman”.
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“This film is interested in the point where hate and humour meet. Its protagonist is a real cow. I loved her to bits,” added the London Evening Standard.
Meanwhile, The Observer wrote: “Funny Cow may prove as hard to embrace as its spiky subject, but Peake’s performance and Hawley’s music help to carry us across the threshold.”
Opening up about the movie to The Big Issue in 2018, Peake shared: “It is how you climbed up that slightly barbaric greasy pose in the comedy world. I had always been fascinated by the idea of being a woman in working men’s clubs.”
The star explained that comedian Marti Caine, whose life inspired the movie, “always struck a chord” with her, and that Pitts’s own background helped in writing the script.
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“It turned out Tony used to run comedy clubs, his mum had a passing acquaintance with Marti Caine, and he really knew that world,” she added. “He went off and wrote the script in about two weeks.”
In a separate interview with The Scotsman, Peake further shared: “I’ve always been fascinated by that working men’s clubs scene that was around when I was a child and that I went to when I was older.
“Especially women coming through that world. How did they stand it? And what sacrifices, compromises did they have to make?”
The star added: “I used to love [Caine] on TV as a child. I was fascinated, because she was glamorous yet funny and quite tomboyish too.
“We didn’t want to do a Marti Caine biog, but I looked at her life. She had some pretty dark times and that made her someone who could tough it out. It takes a certain type of woman to take on those men, because they were brutal.”
Funny Cow is available to stream on NOW, Sky and Prime Video.
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Sam is a freelance reporter and sub-editor who has a particular interest in movies, TV and music. After completing a journalism Masters at City University, London, Sam joined Digital Spy as a reporter, and has also freelanced for publications such as NME and Screen International. Â Sam, who also has a degree in Film, can wax lyrical about everything from Lord of the Rings to Love Is Blind, and is equally in his element crossing every ‘t’ and dotting every ‘i’ as a sub-editor.