Days of the Bagnold Summer

The Inbetweeners star Simon Bird’s directorial debut is a funny, charming and wince-inducingly accurate adaptation of Joff Winterhart’s graphic novel, with a soundtrack by Belle & Sebastian. Days of the Bagnold Summer (2019) sweetly draws you into the wobbly relationship between well-intentioned single librarian Sue Bagnold and her black-clad teenage son Daniel, who’d rather listen to Metallica than his mother. Daniel was meant to spend the summer in Florida visiting his dad, but is now stuck with Mum following the trip’s cancellation. The film boasts supporting turns by Rob Brydon and Alice Lowe, but belongs to its two leads. Long-suffering Sue is sympathetically portrayed by Monica Dolan, with Earl Cave’s Daniel a suitably lank-haired, pale-skinned picture of adolescent metal-head angst.