George is a "normal bloke". Kicked off by a guitar player he met in his local, George invites a magician to the hotel bar to chat before asking him upstairs to "show him some magic tricks". Naively the magician goes to his shabby room only to find that George wants sex. When the man flees the room George gets a taxi and goes looking for Nina, a 15 year old heroin addict whom he knows he can bully into sex. Nina's life is a mess and it looks like small acts of kindness from a taxi driver and a magician could damage it as much as help.
Commissioned by the Artic Monkeys as a tie-in to their song "When the Sun Goes Down", this short film is based on their lyrics and makes for a rather depressing film but one that is interesting at the same time. Being based on a song, this film naturally struggles with a strong plot and is more about the two basic characters sketched out by the Monkeys. The main two people are Nina and George and they are basically representing the people who exist when the sun goes down the back streets, the lowlifes, the "scum" (for whatever reason). In this way the film is quite compelling although I didn't think the whole thing about the magician and the degree of coincidence worked. The film is best looking at these lives as well as taxi driver Jock and his frozen relationship with his wife.
The direction and writing from Fraser is good and he handles the air of depression and hopelessness really well. Graham is convincingly scummy as the man of the title and gives a horrid performance while still being unsettlingly real. Socha is just as disturbing with a girl who is stuck on drugs, stuck on cheap exploitation and abuse. Her situation is not exaggerated and it is depressing how spot-on she gets the touting for sex and the foul behaviour. Support is good from McClelland. Although his character could have done with more depth he brings a lot out with what he is able to do.
The film ends with a very fast version of the film played out with the song like a music video it doesn't add much to the film but it is interesting to see how well the words fit the film and also a good chance to enjoy the song itself. Overall a depressing but effective short film that compliments a good track.
