Happy New Year, Colin Burstead

I had high hopes for this film as I loved 'Kill List' and 'Sightseers' but unfortunately it just came across as an artier version of Eastenders filmed on wobblycam. The premise was interesting but it didn't go anywhere and soon descended into pointless bickering characters which is the mainstay of lowbrow soaps. Sure, that's what happens when families get together, but it would have been good if we were amused or surprised at some point. Perhaps Julia Davis should have written the script for it. As it is, it stands as a failed improv experiment. I hope Ben Wheatley's next effort will be better.

I'm a big Wheatley fan, even though I think his films can be hit and miss. I had no anticipation for this film and watched it out of boredom really. The film has a constant underlined tension which you think will explode into a crescendo of violence that never happens. I look forward to rebecca.

Fractious family gatherings, especially those marking a holiday or life event, are a staple of Anglophone popular culture. What Ben Wheatley seems to have done in this comedy-drama is to take this situation, although with a larger than average cast, and assume the script for a comedy-drama would just write itself. But a New Year's Eve drinks party just isn't a sufficiently high-concept idea to sustain a satisfactory full-length movie without character arcs, dramatic tension, or a plot, which are sadly deficient here.

It is filmed in an exaggerated docu-soap style, with shaky camerawork, zip pans and sudden focus changes, which many viewers will no doubt find jarring or pretentious. It wasn't this, however, that I had a problem with, so much as the structure. With such a bewildering number of characters, little attempt to provide any back-story for them before the party, and no real central protagonist, it is difficult to care much about any of the people in this movie, and the dramatic potential of the set-up is largely squandered. For me, the only truly dramatic or intense moment was Colin's rant at his serial-adulterer, family-abandoning brother David, who has arrived with his German girlfriend, about a third of the way in.

I did not feel that the dialogue was particularly witty or incisive either - the only line that stuck in my mind was when Colin was setting up the sound system and says "we have to have a disco, because if they don't dance, they fight."

The themes of indebtedness and financial embarrassment are touched on and there's even a very perfunctory conversation between two characters about Brexit and party politics, but it doesn't go anywhere with these ideas, and in the subsequent Q&A I found the director's claim that he was making, as he put it, "a film about the 'now'", to be somewhat hollow.

The country house is a nice location visually, it has a consistent visual style and a strong cast, but I don't think I can give it more than 5/10.

Ben Wheatley is a versatile director who will try his hand in any genre. This is not a guy who wants to be pigeonholed.

Happy New Year, Colin Burstead comes across as a modern Play for Today with Mike Leigh type improvisation. It was even co-produced by BBC Films.

The film aims to be Festen but is nowhere near as good.

I expected a dark tragicomedy and this fell way short. Maybe there was not enough time or money to work out the story.

Wheatley regular Neil Maskell is Colin Burstead who for various reasons is hosting a grand New Year's Eve party for his extended family at a country mansion that he has hired.

Colin believes in the importance of the family but yet seems impatient when they arrive. His demeanour is that of a man who is certainly not looking for a good time.

His dad is in financial trouble because he has lost money on a business venture. Colin gets upset when his philandering younger brother shows up, a man who abandoned his wife and kids.

Somewhere in here is a morality tale about broken, brexit Britain. I did not find it.

This little unheard of tragicomedy drama represents some of Ben Wheatley's best work to date. There's lots of characters here, and his script manages to integrate them all in interesting and sometimes amusing ways; the dialogue is sharp, with the actors adding bits and pieces when called for, and the tense family relations soon reaches a boiling point with appropriately awkward and tense confrontations after smart setup work.

As well as writer and director, Ben Wheatley also shows really impressive work as editor. Conversations are constantly cut up with other conversations, and the transitions are smooth, never losing us as the audience with the content of those exchanges, while also managing to keep us aware of where everyone is and what's on everyone's mind in a given moment.

Of course, when the focus is on dialogue, you need a good ensemble, and fortunately this British film is splendidly cast from top to bottom, with Neil Maskell demonstrating yet again why he deserves more leading roles with this incredible, impassioned display. Overall, 'Happy New Year, Colin Burstead' is an excellent acting, screenwriting, and editing showcase.

8/10.