Since i have slagged off Press on Features considerably in my previous reviews, i feel i should make it clear for clarity's sake that not all of their output has been drab and vanilla waste as i've hinted at previously. Look no further than at what i guess what you could call their most iconic release, a Poundland staple, Rise and Fall of a White Collar Hooligan.
Released at a time when both the gangland and Hooligan genres were in decline, this film combined the two, cleverly, admittedly, as a way to pick up the scraps of niche interest left over from the early 2000's. The result was an exploitation (and not the last one) of a true life account of a credit card fraudster with an "oh so indeed" frustratingly misleading title slapped on and the new wave of low budget Brit crime cinema crashed into our supermarkets. The Hooligangster film had arrived and has not left since.
So, enough history, how's the film itself? Not bad. The quintessential low budget DV-era crime film. It has a clear idea of what it is and rarely bandies about with bringing the goods, all budgetary restrictions considered. Nick Nevern serves well as the small fish, big pond hood and is additionally served well by a good supporting turn by Simon Phillips and a well-balanced script that never struggles for politicisation and instead settles with sympathy for our protagonists.
The clue is in the title. They are just atypical white collar guys, like the intended audience, who happen to embark on this underworld odyssey. There is really not a bad turn in this by anyone in this really. Unadventurous or safe yes, but never disastrous or insipid. It's a story that keeps your interest despite lacking the bombast of the more notable entries it apes consistently throughout the running time.
Is it the best of it's kind? Maybe. Taking into consideration that it spawned a trilogy of steady quality, it's hard to argue anything of it's kind matches it in success. But with the increasingly ambitious (and enjoyable) works of the likes of Nicholas Winter and Terry Lee Coker upcoming, it might be only a matter of time before a new style establishes itself and closes over this fine ride of austerity era gangster fantasy.
