jezzacla

Daniel Peacock may be considered something of an auter (ooh get me!) in the distant future. He has been involved in UK shows such as Diary of a Teenage Health Freak, Harry & Cosh and Cavegirl and all have something of a unique feel (more Larry David than Peter Engel in quality and style thankfully). They are all shows for teenagers that absolutely hit their target audience where they live, with their shockingly realistic portrayal (albeit exaggerated for fun) of the gleefully nasty anarchy of raging adolescence.

The sad thing is that the show is broadcast on a Saturday afternoon on UK's Channel 5 which, whilst a terrestial channel, is not very well promoted, thus neither is "Harry & Cosh" . If the show was on Children's TV (BBC or ITV) it would surely be at least a cult hit (even as a TV addict, I only came upon it this year, 2002, it was so well hidden). However, if it was more well known it would doubtlessly garner many a parental complaint, due to the nihilistic and erotic obsessions of Harry, Cosh and friends. Seen as Peacock's latest show "Cavegirl" has similarly been broadcast on a new digital channel, maybe the subversive writer/director is deliberately keeping low-key, like the trojan-horse of kid's TV.... no it's probably just those damn controllers/schedulers.

Rather than the Lockstock comparisons (con-tricks in a seedy pub-world of nicknames and an eccentric Mr. Big villain), I was more worried about this film becoming a kiwi take on Doug Lihman's "Swingers" - this worry compounded by the match-cutting of a pool ball been potted and a couple reaching orgasm in the opening minutes of the film.

The visual flashiness and misogynistic small-talk soon subsides and the film becomes a rather sweet sport-film (underdogs in the tournament of their lives, betrayal, self-doubt, physical incapacity before 'big game' etc.). The acting certainly helps, as does the novelty of each pool team representing a deliberately cartoonish tribal-stereotype (similar to the fun of the various 'gangs' in Walter Hill's "The Warriors").

The makers show they are a clever bunch making a competent mass market film that veers the right side of indulging rather than insulting the viewer's intelligence. (I especially liked the underplayed fact that if the stickmen win the final it will give the pub-landlord money to do up their seedy watering-hole and turn it into the sort of flashy pub they hate!)

60 out of 82.

Very British film comedy-romance-drama about immigrants trying to 'make it' in Britian. In the same way that 'My Beautiful Launderette' was hard to categorise as straight romance or straight comedy, so is this, but perhaps it lacks the political bite of the earlier film. However it does feature a likeable lead performance and a plot with enough inertia to keep thickening.

The rather linear and limited appearance of Juliette Lewis is a bit of a mystery. I would suggest she was placed in the film, in the same way that 'Four Weddings And a Funeral' wanted an American actress in order to boost box-office. The trouble is: Juliette Lewis has spoken at length about her enjoyment of the script and how seriously she took the role. Yet her role seems very slight and a little bit of a blind alley. If the Mariyln Monroe impersonator looked and sounded little like Marilyn off-stage (perhaps with a Birmingham, England accent) it would have made more sense and the lead character's love of her would have made his character even more sweetly innocent and endearing.

The last half hour of the film seems to have come from an entirely different script, more fantastical and yet more serious at the same time. Perhaps this is the influence of the literary genre, magical-realism but regardless, it does make for a film that goes somewhere you weren't expecting and how often can you say that about a film?