Manchester, the present. Michael divides his time between the job center and the pub. A chance meeting with Lee, an introduction to her Uncle Ian and a heavy night on the lash lead to a job working the door at a Northern Quarter massage parlor. After witnessing the violent death of one of the punters, Michael experiences blood-drenched flashbacks and feels himself being sucked into a twilight world that he doesn't understand but that is irresistibly attractive. When he eventually finds out what goes on in the room below Cloud 9, Michaels' life will never be the same again.
Musician and writer Elizabeth Sankey investigates the past, present and future of romantic comedies, assisted by a chorus of critics, actors and filmmakers.
At the Grand Hotel in Scarborough overlooking the North Sea, first Liz and then Aiden receive the keys of the respective rooms, declaring to be alone but finding themselves, in the space of a trip in the elevator, each one clinging to a younger lover. Over the course of a weekend, two love stories intersect and merge, forbidden and marked, mirroring one another. The couples' game is balanced, with Liz and Aiden both teachers struggling with both intense and problematic loves for sixteen-year-old Daz and Beth. Overflowing with vital ingenuity, the two boys represent a romantic and sensual ideal that begs to be lived, but at the same time requires to be hidden from prying eyes: there is not only age to complicate things, but the fact that every couple is composed of teacher and student. Liz is lithe and luminous as a 45 year-old teacher in love with her muscular pupil Daz, whose puppy-like naive enthusiasm could clearly wane. They've only actually spent 22 hours together during their.