Our Ladies

Students from a Catholic girls' school in Fort William aim to misbehave while attending an Edinburgh choir competition, in this spirited, 1990s-set adaptation of Alan Warner's novel The Sopranos. Playing like a dirty-minded update on the vintage Scots comedies of Bill Forsyth, with a hint of TV's Derry Girls, the film features some terrific performances, with Tallulah Greive (playing a girl in recovery from leukaemia) and Marli Siu (a big-voiced pop wannabe) standing out from the ensemble. These lasses are so brassy you know no harm will come to them, which does sap the tension from the movie's escapades in Auld Reekie, and the characters' brazen attitudes and salty language may prove too much for some. But with some sprightly musical interludes at a karaoke venue, veteran director Michael Caton-Jones certainly recovers some of his Scandal-era mojo. It's not all irrepressible naughtiness, as the closing scenes gracefully put the girls' hopes and dreams into a sobering social context, making this an occasionally ragged but mostly endearing watch.