Nightride

An excellent low-key thriller carried with aplomb by the stellar performance of Moe Dunford.

One last night of hustling, one last night of pulling the strings, being the puppet-master, bossing the deal... And just like in love or war, no matter how hard you try, nothing goes right for our protaganist Budge. He's a major player in the Belfast coke scene, 50 kg's of the finest nose candy that he's got to shift before midnight, just him, his car, his mobile, his contacts and his wits.

It's been done before, driving through the night, man with a deadline: vis-à-vis Locke. But this time the stakes are much, much higher. Budge wants to get out, to go straight, start a garage business with his partner Graham - just one last deal to do, to fund it. Can he pull it off? Not if he get's on the wrong side of the man he's just borrowed £100k from to buy the drugs, the enigmatic and precisely enunciated Joe, just a voice on the phone played superbly menacingly by Stephen Rea. Joe's enforcer Troy, played by Gerard Jordan, is a man with scant regard to the concept of invading personal space...

So the night rolls on and Budge deals with the hand of fate played out to him by circumstances always beyond his control. And just like his partner, you can get strangely aroused by watching it all unfold... It's a one-shot white knuckle drive to an appointment with destiny.

Except for some very shakycam beginnings to near nausea (later it was obvious there was no elbowroom for a steadycam), the long continuous shot was impressive, settled down in the car, and only got better. The plot kept engaging my suspension of disbelief. As an early developer of low light photography, this film blew me away with its ability to create an hour and a half continuous and seamless night shoot with no lighting glitches. The occasional lens flare and defocus bokeh is pure art, at points creating a halo around our heroine, almost reflecting his moral character. Kudos to all Ukrainians at this key moment in history! You are fighting the good fight, even as previously reflected in this surprisingly great film. I'll have to watch it again to see if there was any editing (maybe the home invasion window pan scene? ;)

With 90 minute play time, it hardly has a dull moment considering there are no CGI or fancy stunts.

Do not pay attention to the rating. The acting is great. The characters (not many of them) are interesting and story is simple, to the point.

Worth a watch.

This real-time single-take shot film was certainly an edge of your seat tense and suspenseful ride. It's certainly an impressive feat as only his second full length film for short-film director Stephen Fingleton. I had my doubts at first - I mean what can you really accomplish in one take for 97 mins, but short-film writer Ben Conway (who makes his first full length feature film debut) managed to throw in some tense twists, curve-balls and even some amusing one-liners to keep me entertained the entire time. The story wasn't really revolutionary, but the way it was shot, and the fact this was all in real time, just made the writing that much more exciting. Moe Dunford as Budge helped elevate the story with great body language and mounting intensity. This is a great slickly crafted minimalistic Irish crime thriller and it's certainly worth the watch. A well deserved 8/10 from me. .

This wasn't a terrible film, but based on the description I hoped for more action and such. Most of the movie is shot inside the main characters car, as he navigates the streets to chase down his one last job before quitting that life forever . I would say that the idea was there and it was an interesting concept but could have been executed better. Overall not a bad movie but feels very drawn out.