Ratcatcher (1998)

For her very first feature, director Lynne Ramsay found herself the recipient of an obscene amount of positive press from European critics, so much so that a backlash was inevitable. So it's a relief to report that despite the hype, pro and con, her grim coming-of-age tale Ratcatcher remains a singular moviegoing experience, the kind of film made by a person who composes every shot as if it were her last. Fusing a gritty, kitchen-sink realist drama -- the kind the U.K. film industry has been producing since The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner -- to a haunting, poetic visual style, Ramsay is able to create something uniquely her own. Free of the flash common to turn-of-the-millennium British directors (see Guy Ritchie), Ramsay sketches in details about her main characters in an intuitive, breathtaking manner. Though there is a semi-conventional narrative, tethered to the unreliable point-of-view of a 12-year-old boy, Ratcatcher is much more interested in memory, perception, and fantasy, and how these forces can filter and distill a very real, bleak existence. If anything, Ramsay's debut is reminiscent of Terence Davies' similarly impressionistic first film Distant Voices, Still Lives -- in her protracted use of pop songs, her painterly use of color, and her anti-nostalgic approach to the period piece in general -- but with a major difference: It's not nearly as stifling. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide