Per­fect 10

Scot­tish writer/​director Eva Riley brings pas­sion and heart to this whole­some com­ing-of-age dra­ma. Set on the out­skirts of Brighton, Per­fect 10 is a film about the female expe­ri­ence, cap­tur­ing the com­pli­cat­ed emo­tion­al and phys­i­cal stages of pubes­cence through a fresh and endear­ing lens.

Gym­nast Leigh (new­com­er Frankie Box) is anx­ious and adrift, cast as the ​“odd-one-out” among the well-liked and well-dressed girls in her local gym­nas­tics club. Wear­ing a leo­tard that is both old and worn dur­ing her train­ing, she quick­ly finds solace from the cru­el insults and abuse thrown at her in a world which takes place entire­ly in her head.

Spend­ing her days and nights by her­self, walk­ing the emp­ty streets with only music and her thoughts for com­pa­ny, Leigh is iden­ti­fied as a day­dream­er who is out of touch with the peo­ple around her. She prac­tices her acro­bat­ic moves alone, and is shown yearn­ing for her class­mates’ afflu­ence. Pover­ty-strick­en, with a dis­tant moth­er and a father with whom she bare­ly has a rela­tion­ship to speak of, Leigh starts to express a short tem­per towards her coach that is in part a response to the lack of recog­ni­tion she receives from everybody.

It is Leigh’s half-broth­er, Joe (Alfie Dee­gan), who even­tu­al­ly breaks through her bar­ri­er, slow­ly but sure­ly implant­i­ng him­self into her life. Meet­ing for the first time through an unwel­come dis­pute, Joe’s pater­nal pres­ence brings Leigh a sense of free­dom and con­fi­dence that she des­per­ate­ly needs.

Whether it’s the pair’s involve­ment with under­ground crime – steal­ing motor­cy­cles, petrol and pet­ty cash – or the emo­tion­al and humor­ous bond that’s formed to pro­tect them from their absent par­ents, the film fore­grounds the close kin­ship of two sib­lings try­ing to find them­selves and each other.

Despite being a lit­tle rough around the edges in places, Riley’s tale of young dreams and desires makes for a mem­o­rable debut. Built around a com­bi­na­tion of pop music and Ter­ence Dunn’s score, which feel like a step­ping stone into Leigh’s world of gym­nas­tics, this is a mature explo­ration of the hard­ships of youth that speaks from the heart.