Days of the Bagnold Summer (2019)

We enjoyed this story of an English goth teenager and his uncool mom. Earl Cave and Monica Dolan shine in their struggles with many a laugh to be had. Supporting cast includes the always funny Tamsin Greig and Rob Brydon.

Simon Bird directs from a script by Lisa Owens, based on the 2012 graphic novel by Joff Winterhart.

The music by Belle and Sebastian can be streamed on Apple Music and other platforms and is supplemented by this list of songs.

Greig was last blogged for the Oscar-nominated short film Revolting Rhymes and Brydon for Blinded by the Light. Coincidentally Brydon was also in Revolting Rhymes. Dolan has been in Pride and many other projects. Cave has had several roles both before and after this one.

This is the feature debut for Bird and Owens (his wife), though Bird has since directed six episodes of a series.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are heated up with a 92% average, while its audiences are decidedly cooler, coming in at 74.

We were inspired to watch it because it was briefly streamed from the website of our favorite independent movie art house. But then it left, so we rented it for a fee on iTunes/Apple TV on July 27.