Gasman

Lynn Ramsey's 'Gasman' is another film of the social realist genre (reality based drama, events which could happen in the real world).
Set at Christmas time the film depicts a father taking his children out, meeting another woman and taking her kids as well as his own to a Christmas party in a social club.
All the way through the film feels really cold and icy, the winter air (making the character's breath show), the character's attire combined with the cloudy sky and the lack of greenery in the vegetation the characters walk past make the viewer feel chilly, the atmosphere between the father and his kids only enforces that cold feel as it doesn't feel loving or warm like a father child relationship should be. When the second set of children join the group that doesn't improve the situation as one of the first children makes degrading comments on how the newcomers look.

When the group reach the Christmas party the atmosphere doesn't improve a great deal, and why there are tensions becomes clear when the two little girls get into a fight with each other over who's 'daddy' the father is. While some may have got the reference when the father and the woman conversed but this scene cements it: he's the father of both lots of children, just from different relationships with different women and the children didn't know this. This is why I think the film belongs in the social realism genre; this could have and probably does happen in real life, men leave women with kids and try to start a fresh with another relationship, it's when the paths cross that trouble can arise.

The whole film, along with the cold and chilly atmosphere has a very impersonal feel to it, we rarely get close ups of character's faces and in the opening sequence in particular we don't see a single face and the mother is kept in the shadows as if she doesn't matter. At the Christmas party which should be a place of happiness and celebration, aside from a few seldom smiles the overall mood is still gloomy amongst the girls, who look out of place with all the other children playing around them, the juxtoposition of the Christmas music is clever as well, showing the girls should be happy but they aren't.

I enjoyed the film in part because of it's cold atmosphere and because it kept me interested in what was happening.