Stella Does Tricks

{{Short description|1996 British film}}

{{Infobox film

| name = Stella Does Tricks

| image = Stella_Does_Tricks_VideoCover.png

| caption =

| director = Coky Giedroyc

| producer = Adam Barker

| writer = A. L. Kennedy

| starring = {{plainlist|

• Kelly Macdonald
• James Bolam
• Hans Matheson
• Ewan Stewart}}

| music = Nick Bicat

| cinematography = Barry Ackroyd

| editing = Budge Tremlett

| distributor = British Film Institute{{cite web|title=Stella Does Tricks (1996)|work=BBFC|access-date=12 April 2021|url=https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/stella-does-tricks-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0zmdiwmdg}}

| released = {{Film date|1998|1|30|UK|df=yes}}

| runtime = 97 minutes

| country = United Kingdom

| language = English

| budget =£650,000{{cite web|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150451076|title=STELLA DOES TRICKS|website=collections-search.bfi.org.uk|accessdate=16 September 2021}}

| gross =£32,966 (UK){{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|date=14 December 1998|page=72|title=British biz at the box office}}

}}

Stella Does Tricks is a 1996 British drama film about a young Glaswegian girl, played by Kelly Macdonald, working as a prostitute in London.

The film was the first feature film directed by Coky Giedroyc, inspired by her previous work making documentaries about homeless people in Glasgow, Manchester, and London, and provided Macdonald with her first film role after Trainspotting.Allon, Yoram; Patterson, Hannah & Hodges, Mike (2001) Contemporary British and Irish Film Directors: A Wallflower Critical Guide, Wallflower Press, {{ISBN|978-1-903364-21-5}}, p. 111 The film has been described as "an uncompromisingly feminist text, in which the Baby Doll turns Avenger",Campbell, Russell (2005) Marked Women: Prostitutes and Prostitution in the Cinema, University of Wisconsin Press, {{ISBN|978-0-299-21254-4}}, p. 302-304 and by Lawrence van Gelder of The New York Times as a "bleak, perceptive portrait of the prostitute as a young girl torn between the need for genuine love and a career of sexual exploitation".van Gelder, Lawrence (2001) Stella Does Tricks in The New York Times Film Reviews 1999-2000, Routledge, {{ISBN|978-0-415-93696-5}}, p. 230-231

Despite the film centering on the lives of female prostitutes, the only nudity in the film is male nudity.Leach, Jim (2004) British Film, Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-521-65419-7}}, p. 142

The screenplay was written by the novelist A. L. Kennedy, and draws in part on one of her earlier stories, Friday Payday.Petrie, Duncan J. (2004) Contemporary Scottish Fiction: Film, Television and the Novel, Edinburgh University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-7486-1789-0}}, p. 73 Cinematography was by frequent Ken Loach collaborator Barry Ackroyd.McFarlane, Brian & Slide, Anthony (2003) The Encyclopedia of British Film'', Methuen, {{ISBN|978-0-413-77301-2}}, p. 2, 251