12A, 106mins

In its first few minutes, Clubland looks as if it’s going to be unwatchable. In this Australian comedy Brenda Blethyn plays Jean, a bawdy, blousy comedienne, who cackles like a crow and cracks antediluvian jokes. She’s unbearable to watch but commands love and loyalty from her two sons. When Tim (Khan Chittenden), the younger of the two boys, gets a girlfriend, the film starts to get interesting.

Jill (a promising turn from the former model Emma Booth) is lithe, blonde and jaggedly neurotic. Jean hates her on sight and flaunts her ownership of her son’s affection as a counterattack to Jill’s flawless youth. The savage banter is well played by both women – Booth holds her own against Blethyn’s experience and unselfconscious grotesquery. But then the film seems to run out of hate and the characters reach an uneasy understanding and a cheesily upbeat ending. You can’t help but mourn for the hint of an intriguing film that could have been.

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