A Film with Me in It

This requires a little suspension of disbelief. An appreciation of the deftness of the actors helps. If you have a little background in Beckett, there are some more resonances. Both Moran and Doherty know how to spin the story, lend credibility to the scenario. It is a tribute to their intelligence as actors that the premise engages you and holds your attention. Watching them is a delight as they portray their downbeat characters with warmth and affection. Their synergy and subtlety makes this a low-key delight. If action, cgi and high-octane blockbusters are your bag, stay away. Otherwise, enjoy the wittiness of this small scale gem and celebrate the fact that such pictures get into circulation at all in such cash-straightened times.

I liked it in a weird way. But it would be better suited as a short film or 50 minute stage play.

Ratings: 5 - Amazing 4 - Great 3 - Very good 2 - Good 1 - Fair 0 - Poor

For more information about the ratings, please visit: http://critical-eruditass.blogspot.com/p/about-blog.html

Characters: 2 Screenplay: 2 Cinematography: 2 Emotional: 1

Overall: 2.0

The film does a good job of walking the line between tasteful and tasteless of dark comedy. Nothing in this film makes sense or is logical, but it isn't supposed to; each ridiculous twist and turn can be amusing. To me, it was amusing and I had a few laughs, but they can be a little sparse. And in the end, it leaves you feeling a bit empty. While that may be the point of the film, it also feels a bit like a television episode that was dragged on. Overall, I found it a good experience.

The characters are stupid and illogical. Entertainment depends on whether or not one can get over this fact. At times I could laugh, but at times I was just dumbstruck. The actors also did a pretty good job of appearing similarly dumbstruck. Huberman, particularly, did quite well. Moran is his usual self.

Not only is it hard to develop any kind of connection with the characters, but they can induce hate. At times, I just can't turn off shoe-switching. "WHY, YOU FOOL!" I scream in my head, but they never seem to hear me. Sometimes inducing this kind of emotion is good, but they overdid it and it can definitely begin to shift to annoyance, ruining the suspension of disbelief.

The screenplay was absurd, in a good way, but could have flown better. The characters are introduced haphazardly and the buildup is very slow. Eventually I began wondering where the dead bodies were. The clear foreshadowing does create an interesting little "whose gonna get it" atmosphere, but they needed to anchor more of the script around it. If it was worked and teased a bit more, it would've been great. It got better as the bodies began piling up and the absurdities amounted.

The tone of the film started off teetering between funny and serious, so some parts left the viewer uncertain as to how to feel. The ending expunged on the humor created and is a hate it or love it thing.

The cinematography, on the other hand, was surprisingly aesthetic. With no flair, the angles and composition is well done for a low budget film.

While I was never really drawn into the film, I enjoyed the brief nonsensical departure from sane people.

This black comedy is a story of Pierce (Dylan Moran) and Mark (Mark Doherty), two jobless Irish friends sharing a run down apartment with Mark's girlfriend Sally (Amy Huberman), and Mark's disabled brother David (David O'Doherty). The apartment is owned by a disgruntled Jack (Keith Allen). The movie suddenly takes a turn for the worse one day in their uneventful and eroding lives.

The movie really takes the very definitive yet subtle elements of black comedy and ties it together with very interesting plot twists. Although no comparison can be made, for the sake of a relative scale- A Film with Me in It is abreast with some of the blackest comedy works of the Coen Brothers (such as Burn After Reading, Barton Fink and The Man Who Wasn't There).

The movie tends to drag a little here and there, but makes up for it in the fine character development and cinematography. As the plot progresses, the viewer is often subtly taunted to question their understanding of the story so far.

I'm a fan of Dylan Moran's stand-up work, and he has lived up to my expectations of him on the screen as well. All in all, it's definitely a good watch.

Dylan Moran I'm not sure about Dylan Moran. I cant decide if i find him funny, or pathetic. He seems to have this physical presence of someone who suffers from slight parkinsons or serious alcoholism and i honestly don't know which it is but its somewhat disturbing. The point is though when it comes to casting he's limited to the roles he can play but for this one he's ideally suited.

This film is very dark and slightly funny film. The story, humour, dialogue is all uniquely Irish and will appeal to most but to those who get it especially. The premise is in the tradition of British comedy, unfeasibly ridiculous beyond belief. Two down and out wannabe script writer/film makers bundle their way through a series of explainable but hard to believe accidents which are made all the more worse by their bungled attempts to cover them up. No where does the film make sense but it's not supposed to, if you approach this film with logic you're wasting your time. You have to submit yourself to total fantasy and Irish wit. This film is in fact Murphy's Law.

There are no perfect teeth American heroes to save the day, no beautiful people to carry the film on their looks, no slush no montage scenes of pretty woman hat changes, this film is as dark, damp, dreary and miserable as the dank basement flat it's set in and that's how it's supposed to be, a good British film.

Is it hilarious? No not really, is it funny? yes.

6/10