Like It Is

Starring: Ian Rose, Steve Bell Director: Paul Oremland Original UK Premiere: 1998 Dvd Release: 7th August, 1999 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: Colour, NTSC, Region 0 Encoding

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Like It Is is much like watching a train wreck, the very idea of it is repellent & yet you perversely cant avert your eyes. While its urban grittiness & sooty veneer entranced some critics who mistook its violent, netherworld neorealism for art, Like It Is offers little in the way of redemption, positive gay imaging or even particularly good narrative. Paul Oremland directed this venture about a young, gay Blackpool tough named Craig who bare-knuckle boxes for money. He ultimately moves to London in search of a better life & falls in with the trendy London gay-club scene, meeting & falling for a handsome record producer named Matt & his wealthy boss . The better life is quickly tainted by disillusion & misery, much as is the viewing experience. Steve Bell is, in real life, a featherweight boxing champion in Britain & therefore brings an urgent & raw vitality to the lead, but the characters as a whole are either irritating or unsympathetic, & its ultimately difficult to find anyone to care for, or a story worth empathising with.

Steve Bell is an English political cartoonist, whose work appears in The Guardian & other places. He is known for his left-wing views & skilled caricatures. Born in London, Bell trained as an artist at the University of Leeds & was briefly an art teacher in Birmingham before becoming a freelance cartoonist in 1977. His comic strip Maggies Farm appeared in the London listings magazines Time Out from 1979 & later in City Limits. In 1981 he started contributing a daily strip called If. to The Guardian. Since the mid- 1990s he has also been that newspapers principal editorial cartoonist. He has won many awards for his cartooning, including both the political & strip cartoon categories at the Cartoon Arts Trust awards in 1997. Many collections of his cartoons have been published & he has also illustrated original books in collaboration with several authors. He has made short animated films in collaboration with Bob Godfrey & a radio programme about the life of 18th century caricaturist James Gillray. He has also drawn the Gremlins comic strip for the British comic Jackpot.

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