‘I find women intolerable…‘
Billie Piper has had an interesting career. From bubble-gum pop star to Doctor Who sidekick to the confessional ingenuity of I Hate Suzie via starring roles in Penny Dreadful and Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Piper has never been one to rest on her laurels. Following the success of I Hate Suzie (which Piper wrote as well as starred in), Rare Beasts marks the polymath’s feature directorial debut, and it is… a fascinating journey.
Mandy (Piper) struggles through life with a selfish drunk for a father (David Thewlis), a dying mother (Kerry Fox) and a deeply troubled son (Toby Woolf). She finds solace in Pete (Leo Bill), a man who is ruinously religious, angry and who harbours some profoundly questionable views on women. So, yeah. There’s a lot going on here.
Piper’s anti rom-com is a bold, innovative directorial debut with a striking individual streak that sees seemingly hundreds of ideas thrown at the wall to see which ones will stick. Inner monologues, odd dislikeable characters, an idiosyncratic script which is both funny and off-putting… this is a bold film, and while not everything here works, Piper deserves credit for shooting for the moon rather than playing it safe.
Rare Beasts is far from a classic, but it follows the tradition of quietly sad British films as favoured by Craig Roberts in a way that is endearing and marks Piper out as a singular voice on the cinematic landscape. It’s also worth noting that her performance in front of the camera is remarkable. With season 2 of I Hate Suzie on the horizon, the future looks bright for Bill Pipes.