Plot Summary: A CCTV operator in Glasgow becomes quietly obsessed with a man she recognizes from her past, using the city's surveillance network to pull him back into her life.
Director: Andrea Arnold
Writer: Andrea Arnold
Cinematography: Robbie Ryan
Starring:
Kate Dickie as Jackie Morrison
Tony Curran as Clyde Henderson
Martin Compston as Stevie
Natalie Press as April
Paul Higgins as Avery
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⚠️ SPOILER ALERT ⚠️
Grief, Obsession, and the CCTV Gaze
Back in time to the wonderful year of 2006, where I was 19 and could have avoided all of those mistakes that bring me here today. We got some more Andrea Arnold, this time delivering a drama packed with a little mystery, soft thriller vibes, and twisted eroticism. Initially, I was very happy with the setting inside a CCTV police operation center, but halfway through I felt this surveillance apparatus was kind of pushed aside and something sharper could've been done with it to close out the film. Maybe that's just my simpleton thinking. We watch Jackie turn an institutional security setup into a private weapon for personal grief and obsession. Her tunnel vision exposes how easily public surveillance gets compromised by private bias; while fixated on stalking just one monitor, she completely misses a girl getting stabbed on another. ...You know, I'm actually thinking differently about it right now. The CCTV actually has its own subtle ending, so to speak. It doesn't strictly wrap up the main plot in a neat little bow, but it kinda ghosts around in the background and leaves that lingering question open in Clyde's mind about how the f**k Jackie knew where his daughter was. That was a fun realization! The film takes its sweet time, but it kept me locked in to see what kind of shady sh*t Clyde had pulled and how their lives connected. The cast, especially Kate and Tony, gives super convincing performances in this dodgy Glasgow neighborhood that almost squeezed out a tear from me by the end.
Watch the clip below to see our voyeur catch a surprisingly licentious scene 🧐
An Advance Party Experiment
Beyond the personal obsession, the film offers a bleak look at unglamorous everyday life around the Red Road Flats in Balornock, Glasgow. Built in 1966 as the tallest residential buildings in Europe and entirely demolished by 2015, the complex was criticized as a personal vanity project for architect Sam Bunton. Riding that elevator up to the 24th floor looks like a straight-up nightmare, but it is awesome that Arnold captured that atmosphere before it disappeared forever. Former residents can probably still feel that brutal wind blasting through the open windows (watch the clip below to get what I mean). If you've been following along, you know I recently revisited the chaotic brilliance of early Dogme 95 with The Celebration and The Idiots. That raw, unfiltered realism finds its way directly into Red Road, even if it isn't an "official" Dogme entry. The film was born out of the Advance Party project, an idea hatched by Lars von Trier's Zentropa and Scotland's Sigma Films: three first-time directors were tasked with making standalone films set in Scotland, all sharing the exact same pool of pre-written characters and actors, but free to reinvent the plot, backstories, and genres however they liked. The planned trilogy produced Red Road and Morag McKinnon's Donkeys (2010), while a third installment by Mikkel Nørgaard was never made. That's a bummer.
Watch the clip below where idiot Stevie shows Jackie the crazy wind.
Fruit Tricks
Now that I've shared all the facts you need to know, let's move to the twisted eroticism part. Like many critics before me, at one point I was wondering if I had just started watching porn. I was pretty sure Tony Curran had his face shoved right in there during the cunnilingus scene, but the trick was using half a pear between Dickie's legs while Curran was sucking and licking that half pear. Is this really so much different from actually doing the real thing from an actor's perspective? I've spent more time than needed thinking about this question lol. How thick was that pear?! Moving on. Kate Dickie did have a great ass in that mirror scene
I have to admit that this movie got me slightly aroused 😅. In my defense, I was viewing this on my VR headset, so things were close and personal. Stevie says in the movie:
I shared a cell with him for a whole year, 23 hours out the f*king day, right? You have any idea how desperate you get for sex? And if he was like that he would have tried it on me, and he never did.
I hope I never get that desperate... I'm going to regret this review so much. Free flowing, boys and girls, free flowing. Anyway, it's a good movie to watch with your partner when the kids aren't around, just make sure you turn on subtitles even if you are a english native speaker. It made me question these CCTV systems, as we don't have such surveillance in Portugal... for now, I guess. Though honestly, I wouldn't mind having them outside of every school.
PS: The scene with Jackie holding the urns felt unnecessarily weird and gave half the plot away, and that end-credits cover song was kinda cheesy.
PS: The scene with Jackie holding the urns felt unnecessarily weird and gave half the plot away, and that end-credits cover song was kinda cheesy.
Freddy's Final Rating
68
Moderate pace, intimate, and unexpectedly arousing piece of work.
🎬 You Might Also Enjoy:
Fish Tank (2009)
Another raw, brilliant film from Andrea Arnold — one of my absolute favorites.
The Outfit (2022)
A tightly wound thriller that rewards patience.
Tom at the Farm (2013)
Grief, obsession, and unsettling eroticism — sound familiar? A great Dolan double bill with this one.
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