‘Blue Jean’ Review: No Privacy within the Girls’ Locker Room

In 1987, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher, addressed public panic over kids’s library books, stating on the Conservative Party convention, “Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay.” Thatcher’s views had been rapidly adopted into the British authorized code, and in 1988, the federal government prohibited the promotion of homosexuality in class. The movie “Blue Jean” units its story on this repressive interval. Broadcasts of Thatcher’s proclamations blare within the background because the film’s protagonist, Jean (Rosy McEwen), traverses between her life as a lesbian and her life as a highschool fitness center instructor.

When the movie begins, Jean has already gone to the difficulty of getting divorced and of popping out to her barely tolerant household. Her hair is bleached and her garments are masculine, however she continues to be establishing a life for herself as a queer particular person. By distinction, Jean is in love with Viv (Kerrie Hayes), an out lesbian with a buzz reduce and punk garments. Viv is comfy with herself and different homosexual folks. Viv’s many pals forged a barely suspicious eye on Jean, as a jumpy newcomer to the lesbian membership.

Jean seems extra assured within the classroom. As a instructor, her demeanor is as cheekily frosty as her hair coloration. She maintains agency boundaries together with her adolescent expenses, insisting on promptness within the locker room and simply shrugging off any youthful insubordination.

But Jean’s equilibrium is disturbed when a brand new scholar, Lois (Lucy Halliday), enters the category. Lois turns into a goal for Jean’s star scholar, who bullies Lois by suggesting to the category that she is perhaps a lesbian. At first, Lois tries to halfheartedly deny the accusations, however she quickly finds that her fists present a greater protection.

It is Jean’s skilled accountability to resolve fights between college students. But as somebody who has been on the receiving finish of discrimination, Jean feels a communal obligation to become involved and to make use of what authority she has to forestall youthful folks from turning into each victims and perpetrators of homophobia. This accountability rattles Jean, disturbing even her life with Viv, and the movie makes use of her terror to attract out real feeling and dramatic battle. In some scenes, conversations about lesbian aggression seem to make Jean spontaneously escape in hives — a credit score to the movie’s make-up staff and to McEwen’s dedicated efficiency.

The movie’s author and director, Georgia Oakley, has made an completed film in some ways. “Blue Jean” seems improbable, and the interval particulars are pitch excellent, from the moppish Nineteen Eighties haircuts to the New Order music selections, all the way in which right down to the neon gender symbols on the lesbian bar. Yet the movie’s most spectacular high quality is its nuanced understanding of how political circumstances create totally different spheres of life. Jean is a personality who strikes each discreetly and discretely between worlds that can’t acknowledge one another. Her private and non-private lives are stacked, and Jean carries each like fragile cargo. One dish too many, and the entire tray might come crashing down.

Blue Jean
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 37 minutes. In theaters.