The Quiet One

Stumbled across this on Amazon Prime.

This is a low budget (very low budget) gem of a film telling a simple story very well. The sound can be a bit hit and miss at times - low budget remember - but nicely paced.

It's short and gets on with telling the story with no,pointless padding.

Mysterious stranger takes over tough inner city pub After one week and throwing out one group of ineffectual louts , the locals all love him, the mid 30s single mother barmaid and her pals all fall for him even though he looks in his 60s, romance and bad acting follow , he's supposed to be a former tough guy but he doesn't give off any latent threat The characters are one dimensional apart from the girl who plays the barmaids daughter, good young actress Sound terrible Soundtrack from someone's Mates band So predictable.

It had the makings of a good story but so many aspects made it unwatchable.

I've always wondered what the worst film I'd seen would be. It's The Quiet One! Ridiculous screenplay and script - just not thought through. Acting?! Well some professional and experienced actors would certainly have helped. Inept direction, obvious from the poor attempt to make things work in the edit. There was no sound dub so the audio is all over the place. In fact in some scenes it's difficult to hear what folk are saying. No grading obviously and the aperture and colour balance are well below the industry's standards. I note no tripods were used and though the hand-held is passable a proper DoP should have been employed. Why it's on Prime amazes me. Worth seeing if one must to experience the lowest of standards.

I watched this after having the pleasure of meeting the director at Birmingham Film Festival last night. I was pretty cautious going in, given how so many no-budget films are quite dull. This is thankfully not the case here. The film is a slow burn, but it doesn't feel like it has much filler, which is the main gripe I have with similar films. The performances all range from decent to pretty good. Director Jon Pegg clearly has an eye for good actors, as the casting is all really good. The one role I would say I didn't feel like it worked was the lead. The actor is clearly good, but he doesn't quite have the presence of someonr like Clint Eastwood or Toshiro Mifune that the film was clearly trying to emulate. Not a bad performance by any means, just miscast.

Very solid all around. Obviously not perfect, but a good way to spend 90 minutes.

With a £6k budget, this John Wick of Birmingham is surprisingly good.

The actors are never going to be red carpet darlings of Hollywood, but they give good performances that are believable.

The script is simple, but effective.

The story, alas is where it's weakest. I'm a product of these rough inner city envrionments where the local guys are known and the pubs are cliquey, New faces stand out, Old faces return, but the legends have ebbed with age and usually they have paid for their indiscretions with their youth.

That being said, with this script, Lenny, the Quiet One is remarkably engaging, the local bar maid is just like every bar girl we know, the local nutter is, the local nutter and the crime family is how you'd imagine them to be.

I mentioned earlier John Wick of Birmingham.... That's close to what this is, not with the pizazz or style, but a close up gritty, no frills, look at how the strong prey on the weak, how fragile life is without Kevlar 3 peice suits from Saville Row, and how fists, knives and intent are the backbone of this story.

I have to mention the Camerawork and the Sound. The former is quite good, the latter, alas, lets the film down.

Overall, I'd recommend this as a little film for. Saturday afternoon if the kids aren't around. You won't want a second watch, but it's better than some of the big budget tripe we are served for entertainment these days.

In terms of bang for the the buck, it's £6k budget, this is an astounding price of work, well acted and engaging. Really hope the cast and crew go onto better things and I'm going to keep an eye out for their future releases.