Ray & Liz

One of Britain’s most celebrated artists, Richard Billingham has made an autobiographical debut feature that immerses the viewer in his Midlands childhood of loveless squalor and parental obliviousness. Despair is laced with humor and boredom with cruelty. RAY & LIZ stands in stark contrast to Ken Loach’s quasi-heroic working class stories. But because this film is made by a first-rate artist, there is a strange beauty that shines through the rampant horror that suffuses everything we see and hear.