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From the director of the beloved Local Hero: ‘Pure Simple Joy’ is an apt way to describe this deceptively meek, completely endearing Scottish film with a universal theme about adolescence and the reality of teen love. John Hughes’ teen pix do not hold a candle to the innocent charm found here. The gawky yet boundlessly optimistic Gregory falls head over heels for the teenaged wonder girl of his dreams… his only problem is that she’s light years ahead of him in terms of maturity. But the female social system takes on the problem in what must be the most gentle (make that Utopian) view of high school ever. Writer-director Bill Forsythe struck independent hit gold.

Gregory’s Girl

Blu-ray

Film Movement Classics

1980 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 91 min. / Street Date January 21, 2020 / 20.05

Starring: Gordon John Sinclair, Dee Hepburn, Jake D’Arcy, Clare Grogan, Robert Buchanan, Billy Greenlees, Alan Love.

Cinematography: Michael Coulter

Film Editor:...

Nobody wants to rock the boat when it comes to reassessing the classics, but face facts: Gregory's Girl is clunky, 2001: A Space Odyssey is never-ending, while Dirty Dancing is still brilliant

A few weeks ago I watched The Searchers, the 1956 John Ford horse opera that is routinely described by critics as one of the greatest films of all time. In 2008 the American Film Institute named it the finest western ever, as well as the 12th best American movie, while the British Film Institute slotted it in at number seven on the all-time greatest list.

Are these guys serious? The Searchers, which deals with a mysterious, morally ambivalent Johnny Reb's relentless quest to find – and perhaps kill – a niece abducted by marauding Comanches, is padded out to epic length with all sorts of daffy comedy. The gags and slapstick fistfights undercut the serious message of the film: that most white...