''Our Ladies'' is a 2019 Scottish

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can ...

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film produced and directed by

Michael Caton-Jones Michael Caton-Jones (born Michael Jones; 15 October 1957) is a Scottish Film director, director and Film producer, producer of film and television. His credits include the World War II film ''Memphis Belle (film), Memphis Belle'' (1990), the r ...

, who co-wrote the screenplay with

Alan Sharp Alan Sharp (12 January 1934 – 8 February 2013) was a Scottish novelist and screenwriter. He published two novels in the 1960s, and subsequently wrote the screenplays for about twenty films, mostly produced in the United States. According to ...

, based on

Alan Warner Alan Warner (born 1964) is a Scottish novelist who grew up in Connel, near Oban. His notable novels include '' Morvern Callar'' and ''The Sopranos'' – the latter being the inspiration for the play '' Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour'' and its ...

's 1998 novel ''

The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based American Mafia, Italian-American mobster, portraying h ...

''. The film stars Tallulah Greive,

Abigail Lawrie Abigail Lawrie (born 1997) is a Scottish actress. She won a Scottish BAFTA for her performance in the Sky Atlantic crime drama '' Tin Star'' (2017–2020). Lawrie made her screen debut in the BBC miniseries ''The Casual Vacancy'' (2015). Early l ...

Rona Morison Rona Morison is a Scottish actress having had roles playing Chell ''Our Ladies'' in 2019 and as Thompson in '' Absentia'' 2020. Early life and career Morison was born and raised very close to Glasgow in Scotland. Morison attended St Columba's ...

, Sally Messham,

Marli Siu Marli Siu (born 11 March 1993) is a Scottish actress. Her films include ''Anna and the Apocalypse'' (2017), ''Our Ladies'' (2019), and ''Run'' (2019), the latter of which won her a Scottish BAFTA. On television, Siu has appeared in the spy thril ...

, and Eve Austin. ''Our Ladies'' premiered at the 2019

BFI London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...

. Its original theatrical release date of 6 March 2020 was delayed multiple times due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, before finally being released in the United Kingdom on 27 August 2021.

Premise

In 1996, five best friends attend a strict Catholic school for girls in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...

town of Fort William. They get the opportunity to go into

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

for a choir competition, but they are more interested in drinking, partying and hooking up than winning the competition. The group includes Orla, who is in recovery from

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

and has an attitude of living life to the fullest; Finnoula, a brainy girl who is desperate to experience life beyond her small town; Chell, a wild child struggling with the loss of her father; Manda, a sharp-tongued, witty girl; and Kylah, a musical protégé with a rebellious spirit.

Cast

Production

Development

optioned

's novel ''

'' in 1998. It was announced in 2018 that production on a film adaptation had begun. Caton-Jones directed the film and wrote the screenplay with

. The film was produced by

Sigma Films Sigma Films is a film production company based in Glasgow, Scotland. The company was formed in 1996 by Gillian Berrie, David Mackenzie and Alastair Mackenzie – a producer, director and actor respectively. Over the last twenty years the com ...

Sony Pictures Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio Conglomerate (company), conglom ...

International Productions, and Four Point Play Pictures in association with

Screen Scotland The Moving Image Archive is a collection of Scottish film and video recordings at the National Library of Scotland, held at Kelvin Hall in Glasgow, Scotland. There are over 46,000 items within the collection, and over 2,600 of these are publicly av ...

. Warner himself and Jennifer Armitage of

Creative Scotland Creative Scotland ( gd, Alba Chruthachail ; sco, Creative Scotlan) is the development body for the arts and creative industries in Scotland. Based in Edinburgh, it is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government. The o ...

executive produced and Caton-Jones produced alongside Laura Viederman of Four Point Play and Brian Coffey of Sigma. Luke Scrase oversaw the film for SPIP.

Filming

Principal photography took place on location in Fort William and

. Some scenes were also filmed in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

Release

The world premiere of ''Our Ladies'' was held at the 2019

on 4 October. It was also shown at the 2020

Glasgow Film Festival The Glasgow Film Festival is an annual film festival based in Glasgow, Scotland. The festival began in 2005. By 2015, the festival had seen audience figures top 40,000 for two consecutive years. 2008 2008's festival took place between 14–24 Feb ...

on 28 February. A trailer was released in January 2020. The film was initially set for theatrical release in the UK on 6 March 2020, which was then delayed to 24 April and subsequently 11 September due to the

, before being shelved indefinitely. It was released at select

AMC Theatres AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (d/b/a AMC Theatres, originally an abbreviation for American Multi-Cinema; often referred to simply as AMC and known in some countries as AMC Cinemas or AMC Multi-Cinemas) is an American movie theater chain fou ...

in the United States on 18 June 2021, and in cinemas in the UK on 27 August.

Reception

The film received critical acclaim. On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, it has an approval rating of based on reviews with an average rating of . The consensus states: "Despite its outdated ideas about teen sexuality, ''Our Ladies'' presents a well-acted and affectingly nuanced portrait of female friendship." Amal Abdi of the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' wrote, "One of the best features of ''Our Ladies'' is the distastefulness of its characters. This posse of unruly young women are brash, bullies and often magnificently cruel. Yet it is precisely these reasons that make the film more radical than offensive. By playing into the stereotypes, ''Our Ladies'' rejects the established portrayals which turn ordinary school girls into bad asses or inexplicable geniuses in the name of a 'strong female character.'" Abdi commented further, "''Our Ladies'' has its flaws. The tone is uneven, it is overly eager and there are points when it is unrealistic to the point of absurdity. Nevertheless, it deserves to be seen. It speaks to the thinly veiled level that has long governed the treatment of young women." Sophie Butcher of ''The Film Magazine'' said, "there’s a raucous energy and seemingly specifically Scottish nostalgia evident in ''Our Ladies'' that really set it apart", and concluded "''Our Ladies'' is a wildly entertaining riot of a movie."

References

External links

* {{Michael Caton-Jones 2019 films English-language Scottish films 2019 comedy-drama films 2010s coming-of-age comedy-drama films British coming-of-age comedy-drama films Films about Catholicism Films based on British novels Films directed by Michael Caton-Jones Films postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Films set in 1996 Films set in Scotland Films shot in Edinburgh Films shot in Highland (council area) Films shot in Glasgow Scottish films British female buddy films 2010s female buddy films 2010s English-language films 2010s British films