Rock'N'Love

You Instead is as close as it gets to being at a music festival without actually being there. Right from the start the audience is wholly immersed in the festival atmosphere. This is, in part, down to the crew shooting the entirety of the film at the T in the Park event in Scotland and featuring the artists performing there (Biffy Clyro and Joe Mango to name two).

Director David Mackenzie took the two actors and their supporting cast and literally dropped them in it. Up to their knees in mud at times and performing amongst a genuine crowd of revellers from start to finish. Luke Treadaway and Natalia Tena are more than convincing as frontmen of their respective bands, largely helped by Tena's burgeoning career as a musician with her group Molotov Jukebox.

You Instead takes brilliant advantage of an environment where the rules of daily life no longer apply. The result is a film populated with larger than life characters in a world we rarely get a glimpse of, and it's a great fun place to spend an hour and a half.

Tonight You're Mine is nothing truly original, boy and girl meet, they dislike each other but are forced to spend time together and then they find that they do like each other, at least romantically. But the smart and witty banter isn't too over the top in a way that makes you say "people don't talk like that" and the chemistry is fantastic. The storyline is a very laid back one, the two bands are hanging out at the "T in the Park" festival and having a good time in between their performances while the leads to each are handcuffed together.

Natalia Tena is an under-used actress with so much potential. She gets really into character and pulls you in, in a way that makes you think that that is her true personality. She was lively, boisterous and sweet in this role and it fit her perfectly. I've never heard of Luke Treadaway before but his acting seemed to be on par for me, and he seemed really natural with his co-star.

I thought that actually filming the movie at and during the "T in the Park" festival was ingenious. They got so much production value out of it, real true things that you can't duplicate even with the most experienced set designer and director. Overall the movie is a real good time; you have fun watching it, wanting to go out and party afterwords. I don't have anything bad to say about this movie and I give it a 6.0 because its just a fun film, nothing too serious but not so un-serious.

It must have been an absolute nightmare to try to shoot a watchable film at a wet festival over one weekend. There's the odd really lovely piece of camera-work tucked away in here and the whole thing beautifully captures the festival experience with a surprisingly unobtrusive but mesmerizing music score. Great to see a cast of more or less unknowns, putting to shame bigger names and far bigger budgets. Not every film has to shock or nudge the audience into exploring some hidden dark side of themselves. Sometimes films are there just to record the lighter side of life, and this is one of them. A pleasant stroll through T in the Park ..... nothing wrong with that.

For anyone who loves music and music festivals this film is a treat. It's a great premise; make a film about a love story during a actual huge outdoor music festival. You have to keep in mind that the logistics of doing this had to have been a b**ch. This is not a cult film, or a classic, or a carefully crafted under control movie. It is what it is: a simple rock and roll fantasy, probably sketched out in general and then written as filming progressed to take advantage of what was going on at the event. I applaud the filmmakers for having the b*lls to attempt this, and then coming away with a sweet story with fun characters and a good feel of the festival spirit.

"If musicians can't get along what hope we got?" After Morello (Tena) shakes Adam's (Treadway) car in order to make him stop playing guitar they start to fight. When a security guard drives by and sees them he decides the only way to make them get along is to handcuff them together. That sounds bad enough but they are at a music festival and are both scheduled to play and no one knows where the key is. For those that have been following my reviews you may have noticed that I am not a fan of cheesy, predictable, un-original movies. This movie is an exception to that rule. Five minutes in the two are handcuffed together and after about 6 minutes you know how it will end. That said it is still very entertaining and really fun to watch. The music is actually really good as well and the song where the sample "Tainted Love" is great. This is nothing more then a cheesy predictable love story but even so I enjoyed it and I recommend it. Overall, nothing new and won't keep you guessing but this is still very much worth seeing. I really liked it. I give it an B+.