In the UK, working-class cinema has been enjoying a renaissance, from Rocks to indie goldies like Scrapper, Pretty Red Dress and Girl. Mike Leigh is firmly back with Hard Truths and Harris Dickinson’s Urchin has freshly premiered in Cannes. Like the latter, Daisy-May Hudson’s debut fiction feature film Lollipop is about homelessness, and — courtesy of its discerning, heartrending script — anchored deep in the young writer-director’s own experience.
Hudson’s film knows all the ins and outs of the brick-wall bureaucracy of the social-care system, which it makes brutally clear from the outset. An automated recording lets us know that Molly (Polly Sterling) is calling her children from inside prison, contrasted with Molly herself reassuring the youngsters that it’s just a few more sleeps until she will see them again. Cut to three days later, Molly — aka the eponymous Lollipop —waiting outside the prison gates, no family or kids in sight.
Has tearjerking moments, but soars in both its highs and lows.
Molly is, figuratively speaking, not out from behind bars just yet. Because of a maddening legislative loophole, the mother, who is sleeping in a tent, can’t get her children back without a home, but according to officials is low priority to get a home without her children. To up the pressure, the clock is ticking down towards the children being permanently assigned a foster parent. Any time Molly spends with them is under the constant supervision of care workers, and Sterling excels as a woman unravelling under the strain of their judgemental gaze.
A straightforward hardship tale this is not, though. Lollipop has its fair share of tearjerking moments, but it soars in both its highs and lows. A shot at a more promising future arrives in the form of Amina (Idil Ahmed), a childhood friend who helps Molly get back on her feet. Amina injects sunny joy into this expanse of wintery bleakness, and some much-needed comedy, too. Some of the later scenes between them are more rough-hewn, but seeing the alchemical connection between Amina and Molly is sheer delight.
Like another recent release, Silver Haze, Lollipop settles on a message of forgiveness and holding on to hope in a crushing system. Hudson may be stepping in Ken Loach-ian footsteps but Lollipop certainly doesn’t feel part of a copycat kitchen-sink second wave. Blistering and impressively even-handed, it crackles with energy. You'll have to watch to see if Molly gets the happy ending she deserves — but part of Lollipop’s power is in its reminder that so many don’t.