Traders

Traders (2015): Harry Fox (Killian Scott) and Vernon Stynes (John Bradley) are left penniless when their company goes under in the economic crash. Harry takes work as a minimum wage data-entry clerk, Vernon returns home to mum to work on a business plan. A colleague who can't take the stress drives his car into a tree so that his family will get the insurance money.

Vernon comes up with the idea of Trading: you fight to the death with each participant putting up an equal stake. You double your money each time and bury the body of your opponent, each having taken turns digging the grave beforehand. Literally survival of the fittest. Harry excels and racks up the kills and accumulates capital. Ken (Barry Keoghan), an eighteen year old combatant complicates the story as criminals attempt to move in on the business. Orla (Nika McGuigan) is Vernon's neighbour and unrequited love interest but now Harry gets involved. But nothing is ever quite straightforward in this quirky Irish thriller which is veined with very dark humour.

A macabre take on the aftermath of the Crash in Ireland, never before has Dublin looked so desolate nor have so many bleak burial sites been located. I a particular irony, abandoned building sites are the arenas for many of the combats and also supply the grave sites. Good acting all round particularly from Scott, Bradley and Keoghan. Co- Directed and written by Rachael Moriarty and Peter Murphy this sharp thriller was under-appreciated on it's release. 8/10

Darkly comic but leaning more towards dark. I was impressed with the script and the acting here. This was a notch above the average B Horror Fare. I feel sufficiently genre-versed to make that call.

from the technical or artistic angle by no mean it is amazing. there's nothing remarkable, no treat for the senses.

however the subject is disturbing making the film interesting enough & leaving an impression on the mind (mine at least).

it's a dive in the world of losers with no hero in it but a wide bunch of losers accepting their condition & running to their death (one way or another).

what is missing beside that psycho-sociological study (through the Vernon character mainly but not only) is a spiritual/philosophical angle to make it truly deep & multi-layered with more subtle character development, better narration & dialogues (i would have liked to see/hear poetry or sarcasm or irony or real funny quotes -they tried but they fail IMO like at the co-worker funeral... something more).

in other words, what is missing is a Stanley Kubrick or a Shane Carruth (re-)writing it & directing it.

conclusion : worth watching but shame it's not the masterpiece it could well have been with more work & perfectionism in the writing & directing.

the generous 7 is because it does leave this lasting impression (unlike 99% of Hollywood productions forgotten 10 minutes after it's over)

I was pleasantly surprised by this film, which is if you want a plot summary for i'm sure you can just go to IMDb or Wikipedia. I checked it out because I saw John Bradley was in it and i'm a big GOT fan. Alas in this film Bradley plays Vernon, an out of work want to be entrepreneur who concocts the idea of "trading" in which two people put all of their net worth into a bag, and challenge each other to a fight to the death in which the winner nets both bags. Vernon is very Samwell Tarylish in his neurotic-ness and the lead character, Harry, played by Killian Scott acted out his character arc brilliantly as out of work and hopeless man in the beginning to wealthy terminator by the films end. As the movie ran shortly under 90 minutes it felt like a long episode of an anthology series as opposed to an actual film, but nevertheless it was quite enjoyable and I suggest giving it a look.

Somebody, in previous review, mentioned that the plot was straight as an arrow, but I have to disagree with that. I had no idea what will happen in the end, and it had plenty of twists, especially in the second half of the movie. New characters were introduced and disposed off, but each one of them had a particular part to fulfill.

John Bradley was in his character, close to the one of his in Games of Thrones. Killian Scott, I thought, did a good job, especially at the end.

The whole concept is refreshing and interesting. And I would recommend to watch the movie. 8 out of 10. Enjoy.