About half way through the movie, I turned it off. Perhaps it got better after I turned it off, but it never got going, anywhere. Slow starts are fine, but there was nothing to make me feel like I needed to watch to the end.

Excellently crafted movie. Very tense the whole time and the viewer really feels the tense bottled up emotions and social pressure Jean struggles with. Not sure I was in the right head space for this when I watched, but it was still quite good if that is what you are looking for.

The film captures history perfectly and Blue Jean is definitely a film I would recommend. Its beautifully shot(by cinematographer Victor Seguin) , has a great soundtrack, and the cast are fantastic in their roles. I definitely recommend Blue Jean and I cant wait to see what director/writer Georgia Oakley has in store next.

Honest and beautifully acted, written and directed. Also a wonderful score.

A period piece of a gay gym teacher in the Thatcher UK. At times beautiful, at times more than a bit slow in plot or meaning. Rosy McEwan is simply brilliant and carries the film throughout. So much of the lines that permeated the conservative fear-based political ecosystem can be heard as echoes against trans people today, and still gay folks to a lesser extent. A good movie, but hard to broadly recommend.

Beats you over the head with such overdrawn thematic repetition that after the first 45 minutes you feel like you just want something else to happen or anything whatsoever to be focused on for at least one minor scene other than lesbianism. The "message" is front and center at all times, leaving any other potentially interesting aspects of the film no room to breathe. It is a worthy attempt at a film in support of LGBT+ liberation, but it is very top heavy and extremely unsubtle. It is hard to lose yourself in the story when the writer and director are so afraid you might forget the central fact that these are lesbians that every single moment requires some reminder or demonstration of this fact. There is no need at all for the multiple sex scenes, they actually deter from time that could have been spent making the story better. We know they are lesbian women - we don't need to see the characters physically proving it six times. It becomes pedantic to the level where the viewer gets the point, and then gets the point made 19 more times before it is over: in the 1980s it was very hard to be gay in Britain. Also, apparently to be lesbian you have to do lesbian things and think about being a lesbian, all the time. The acting is very good, and the interplay between characters is believable, but the browbeating and constant restatement of the characters sexuality is far too overdone to make this much of an artistic achievement.

It wasn't all that long ago when the LGBTQ+ community not only didn't have legal protections for its rights, but also faced blatant discrimination against its constituents, prejudiced initiatives aimed at denying them equal treatment under the law and even subjecting them to lawfully sanctioned ostracism. This was true even in "civilized" and "progressive" societies like those found in North America and Europe. And it prompted individuals to live in fear of losing their jobs and leaving them open to ridicule without ramifications, not to mention disrespect and mistrust from their own families. Those chilling conditions are ominously brought to light in this period piece drama set in the UK in the late 1980s, when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government sought the passage of Section 28, legislation aimed at prohibiting activities openly promoting homosexuality, a bill carrying wide-sweeping implications for the LGBTQ+ community. Many of its constituents, like a young lesbian physical education teacher (Rosy McEwen), retreated into the closet to keep out of sight. But those efforts derailed whatever social progress had been made, damaging those individuals' self-esteem and creating a divisive schism between those who vociferously demanded justice and those who chose to keep a low profile to protect themselves, as evidenced by the experiences of the teacher and her out and proud girlfriend (Kerrie Hayes). Writer-director Georgia Oakley's debut feature does a fine (if somewhat predictable) job of illustrating this rift and the effects it had on both the public and personal lives of these people, an effort that earned the film a 2022 BAFTA Award nomination for Best Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer. Admittedly, the picture's opening act meanders a bit, but, once it gets on track, when the emergence of various damning revelations threatens to blow things wide open, it steadily grows more powerful and heartfelt, qualities supported by the fine performances of the cast, solid writing, and its skillfully crafted atmospheric cinematography and production design. It also provides viewers with a potent cautionary tale about the effects of initiatives like Section 28 (which was in force from 1988 to 2003) and the parallels to this legislation that are currently under consideration in various US jurisdictions. It effectively shows us how Jean became so blue – and how we should seek to prevent the same from happening to the rest of us.

Beautifully written, directed, and acted. Blue Jean walks a fine line. Recommended.

Realistic, kinda predictable but still a good watch.

"Blue Jean" (2022) is a captivating coming-of-age drama that beautifully captures the complexities of youth. The brilliant performances and visually stunning cinematography paint a vivid picture of self-discovery, leaving a lasting emotional impact. A hidden gem worth seeking out.

Nice movie :) I recommend watching!

Rose McEwan is fantastic in this, the cinematography is great, and an amazing debut for its director Georgia Oakley. Tells a very important story.

"Jean (played by Rosy McEwen) is a lesbian high school physical education teacher. These two things didn't mix well back in 1980s Britain. As we see, she lives two different lives, hidden from each other. When she's teaching, there is no mention of her personal life whatsoever, she doesn't even allow a call from her girlfriend while at work. This is out of the fear of losing her job because of her sexuality." Full review at wyattstakes.com

The greatest 01 hour: and 37 minutes ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very well done movie! The acting was good, and dialogue believable. Nice illustration of one more way some humans choose to be inhumane to their fellow humans. Haters are certainly gonna keep on hating.

Great movie and commentary on what truly went on. One that will make conservatives grumble, that's for sure.

Jean's angst might be hard to understand unless you came of age gay in the 1980ies when your job be at risks if it got out you were gay. In that case it rings very true indeed.

Writer-director Georgia Oakley's debut feature is a proficiently made, tiny-budgeted indie drama that I enjoyed watching for the most part, though my enthusiasm for it is more tampered than other reviews out there. Set in North East England in 1988, Rosy McEwen's Jean is a young but closeted Phys-Ed teacher in a state school who has to balance work under the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government's introduction of s.28 of the Local Government Act which bans the promotion of homosexuality in schools and her private life after school with her lover/girlfriend Kerrie Hayes' Viv and the commune of lesbians she lives with. When Jean spots Lucy Halliday's Lois, a new student who's being bullied in her school, in the local gay bar, this threatens the uneasy balance she has established between work and private life as it becomes increasingly difficult to keep separate the compartmentalized parts of her double-life. Oakley nostalgically invokes the 80s setting well with suitably moody and textured cinematography in this no-frills, slow-burning drama that centres entirely on Jean at the expense of other characters, like Viv and Lois, whom I love to know more of than the thin characterization we've got here. While it's still absorbing enough, it falls foul of the ambiguous, artsy Euro-indie movie ending that hedges its bet between a happy ending and a more realistic but compromised one. Its almost over-simplistic resolution doesn't quite have the heft or nuance that I was hoping for, despite a brooding but nevertheless watchable McEwen, who reminds me of a young Annette Bening crossed with Rosamund Pike, and her screen presence which anchors the film well. In short, a solid debut, though one I feel I've seen before and have been done better, but a great calling card nevertheless, especially for Oakley and McEwen.

Very good film with great performances.

Knockout performances from the whole cast and a careful exploration of the impact of Class 28 on ordinary people. Hopefully the country has moved on since that shameful time.