Dangerous Parking

What an unexpected Gem, British film making minus Danny Dyer minus Guy Ritchie minus Colin Firth = ' Excellent ' … Don't switch off after the first 5 minutes as this could be our typical British flop. Narration,, freeze frame ,, loser introspective rewind, loads of swearing, attitude, over use of flashback etc

However the film draws you in . And succeeds through the bombastic central performance from its lead Peter Howit through the effective use of narration and non chronological story telling, all too often exploited in modern cinema

On reflection this is a modern day shakespearean tragedy .. A triumph in modern cinema which succeeds in making you laugh whilst conveying a very sad and poignant message of one mans search for redemption

With a raw honesty served on a plate of hilarious self destructive loathing the narrator introduces his world of drug fuelled decadence with at times hilarious results, before his admission to rehab in an effort to resurrect his life . The latter part of the film turns decidedly dark and is at times difficult viewing so be prepared for an emotional roller-coaster..

Try and imagine Ivan's XTC meets Trainspotting meets Witnail and I ? I !

A MUST SEE

I must say that coming out of the screening for Dangerous Parking is one of the rare occasions where I have genuinely been 'moved' by a film, so I think that coming out saying "I really enjoyed it....It was a great movie....What a great performance etc etc" now seem like stock and clichéd responses to a film that deserves so much more.

I find it hard for anybody who has lived, loved and lost, not to be profoundly moved and affected by Dangerous Parking. It is one of the most honest, real, raw and beautiful films that I have ever seen about the human condition, warts and all. Peter Howitt gave a performance that was, to most Oscar nominated male leads, what junior school nativities are to RSC performances. He gave a blistering, acerbic, and - in more ways than the literal - naked, performance. It demands to be noticed and acclaimed.

The opening five minutes or so of this film sit so uneasily with the rest of it that I'm inclined to wonder if they were a veiled satire of the state of most modern British cinema with it's desperate eagerness to please and self conscious coolness. Lets just say these initial scenes almost made me switch off. I'm glad I didn't.

What follows is a glorious mess of a film. A tumble of ideas and emotion mixed up and thrown at the screen. 'Dangerous Parking' is worthy to be included with Nic Roeg's most frustrating, delirious and brilliant output. It's rare to see a film that doesn't compromise or treat it's audience like a tested demographic. This film deserves to be seen and felt by people who love cinema. Watching Peter Howitt's performance is like watching a drowning man. Uncomfortable but compelling.

In some ways Peter Howitt's work of (undiluted) genius is a counterpart to Truffaut's "La Nuit Américaine", although it's kind of an updated version. Following the other reviewer's suggestion I would say it's the "Trainspotting" version of it. If there ever was a portrait of a filmmaker on film, this is it. This film should be required watching for everybody who loves films and who wants to know how it is to make one. And yet it's so much more. It's a huge portion of life squeezed into 110 minutes of yours. It's amazing, it's f.....g brilliant (as a German I'm hesitant to use swearwords, but hey) it's a ride-of-a-lifetime it's so much more than in my humble words I would ever be able to describe. I watched it in Tokyo on the film festival and one hour after I left the screening I started to cry, in the middle of a crowded street. Or no, I laughed and cried at the same time. Actually I thought they might arrest me, but nothing happened. Maybe they felt pity for me, or thought people do that in Europe - but what they didn't notice was, it was a GLORIOUS crying, because I realized, in an instant, how wonderful it is to be alive. What a film.

I was vaguely aware of this film before it was released, and I must admit, there was little about it that was compelling me to see it. But I watched it on DVD the other night, and thought it was easily one of the best British pictures of the last few years. It's a compelling story, and in spite of all the profanity, the vomiting and the many puerile outbursts, we really do engage with Noah, performed brilliantly by Peter Howitt. It's a gem of a film, and how it bypassed cinemas when so many truly appalling films find their way to multiplexes up and down the country is a mystery to me. Find it on DVD. And I defy anyone not to enjoy it.