{"id":181265,"date":"2025-06-13T14:12:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T14:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/181265\/"},"modified":"2025-06-13T14:12:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T14:12:13","slug":"lollipop-review-an-emotional-wrecking-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/181265\/","title":{"rendered":"Lollipop Review \u2013 ‘An emotional wrecking ball’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mother (Posy Sterling) is released from prison, thinking her ordeal is over, only to be trapped in a hellish Catch-22 trying to regain custody of her two children.<\/p>\n

In the UK, working-class cinema has been enjoying a renaissance, from Rocks<\/a> to indie goldies like Scrapper<\/a>, Pretty Red Dress<\/a> and Girl. Mike Leigh is firmly back with Hard Truths<\/a> and Harris Dickinson\u2019s Urchin has freshly premiered in Cannes. Like the latter, Daisy-May Hudson\u2019s debut fiction feature film Lollipop is about homelessness, and \u2014 courtesy of its discerning, heartrending script \u2014 anchored deep in the young writer-director\u2019s own experience.<\/p>\n

\"Lollipop\"<\/p>\n

Hudson\u2019s film knows all the ins and outs of the brick-wall bureaucracy of the social-care system, which it makes brutally clear from the outset. An automated recording lets us know that Molly (Polly Sterling) is calling her children from inside prison, contrasted with Molly herself reassuring the youngsters that it\u2019s just a few more sleeps until she will see them again. Cut to three days later, Molly \u2014 aka the eponymous Lollipop \u2014waiting outside the prison gates, no family or kids in sight.<\/p>\n

\n

Has tearjerking moments, but soars in both its highs and lows.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Molly is, figuratively speaking, not out from behind bars just yet. Because of a maddening legislative loophole, the mother, who is sleeping in a tent, can\u2019t get her children back without a home, but according to officials is low priority to get a home without her children. To up the pressure, the clock is ticking down towards the children being permanently assigned a foster parent. Any time Molly spends with them is under the constant supervision of care workers, and Sterling excels as a woman unravelling under the strain of their judgemental gaze.<\/p>\n

A straightforward hardship tale this is not, though. Lollipop has its fair share of tearjerking moments, but it soars in both its highs and lows. A shot at a more promising future arrives in the form of Amina (Idil Ahmed), a childhood friend who helps Molly get back on her feet. Amina injects sunny joy into this expanse of wintery bleakness, and some much-needed comedy, too. Some of the later scenes between them are more rough-hewn, but seeing the alchemical connection between Amina and Molly is sheer delight.<\/p>\n

Like another recent release, Silver Haze, Lollipop settles on a message of forgiveness and holding on to hope in a crushing system. Hudson may be stepping in Ken Loach-ian footsteps but Lollipop certainly doesn\u2019t feel part of a copycat kitchen-sink second wave. Blistering and impressively even-handed, it crackles with energy. You’ll have to watch to see if Molly gets the happy ending she deserves \u2014 but part of Lollipop\u2019s power is in its reminder that so many don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

A rousing, emotional wrecking ball in the very best way possible, boasting star-making turns across the board and a story that is guaranteed to stay with you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mother (Posy Sterling) is released from prison, thinking her ordeal is over, only to be trapped in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[77,3943,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-181265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114676468737958771","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}