moray-jones
Joined Jan 2006
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Reviews11
moray-jones's rating
There has definitely been a major marketing push to make this film out to be something it's not.
I'm usually happy to take a low budget into account when watching a film and look for what was done well, but there was very little here to appreciate. Read a five star review and then prepare to be disappointed.
The script was full of waffle and didn't go anywhere - characters stood/sat about giving tedious monolgues supposed to inject meaning.
The directing was mainly static shots that didn't even allow characters to move - a woman tries to direct her boyfriend (after a massive dialogue that should have been left on the cutting room floor) to lights in the garden whilst rooted to the sofa. A family watch a murder, rooted to their chairs.
I liked the actors - though they had to squirm for what felt like hours in every scene to show their terror.
The whole thing should have been done as a short. There's nothing original about the film and there was not enough story to make a film of this length. And not enough money to make it look even that half-decent.
Then the money could have been spent on some polish and the writer would have been forced to consider what the point of the whole thing was.
So bad it's bad!
I'm usually happy to take a low budget into account when watching a film and look for what was done well, but there was very little here to appreciate. Read a five star review and then prepare to be disappointed.
The script was full of waffle and didn't go anywhere - characters stood/sat about giving tedious monolgues supposed to inject meaning.
The directing was mainly static shots that didn't even allow characters to move - a woman tries to direct her boyfriend (after a massive dialogue that should have been left on the cutting room floor) to lights in the garden whilst rooted to the sofa. A family watch a murder, rooted to their chairs.
I liked the actors - though they had to squirm for what felt like hours in every scene to show their terror.
The whole thing should have been done as a short. There's nothing original about the film and there was not enough story to make a film of this length. And not enough money to make it look even that half-decent.
Then the money could have been spent on some polish and the writer would have been forced to consider what the point of the whole thing was.
So bad it's bad!
I was going to give this 2 stars, but I see 1 star is actually for awful! The acting was mainly good and the lead reminded me of Robert Carlyle. Unfortunately the film was crass and stupid.
It basically had one mechanism for humour - juxtaposition. They're buffoons trying to do something deadly. And this gag was used everywhere. Police trying to shoot a target arguing over whether the honey monster is a bear, for instance.
But we're just supposed to laugh at everybody - no one is competent, everyone is stupid. The only thing missing in parts was the Benny Hill music.
I suppose, with the subject matter, it is supposed to be satire but satire should be cleverer than this. And for genuine comedy, in my view, you need to believe that some of it is real.
This film didn't have the courage to be anything but pastiche and ultimately is just a cash-in on world events and not a commentary.
It basically had one mechanism for humour - juxtaposition. They're buffoons trying to do something deadly. And this gag was used everywhere. Police trying to shoot a target arguing over whether the honey monster is a bear, for instance.
But we're just supposed to laugh at everybody - no one is competent, everyone is stupid. The only thing missing in parts was the Benny Hill music.
I suppose, with the subject matter, it is supposed to be satire but satire should be cleverer than this. And for genuine comedy, in my view, you need to believe that some of it is real.
This film didn't have the courage to be anything but pastiche and ultimately is just a cash-in on world events and not a commentary.
I just watched this as a restored BFI DVD and I'm glad someone took the trouble to bring this film back to public attention.
It has the look of being docu-drama, with nothing glossy, as it tracks a young woman coming to London to join her friend in the big smoke. Dressed in duffel coat and thoroughly unschooled in life, she finds her friend not the perfect protector, though friendly and helpful.
Her friend holds, and guards, the coveted position of band-leader's girlfriend amongst a gaggle of groupies and is well ensconced in the life of swinging London.
There are drugs and sex, all of it mundane and unglamourous. People use the drugs to check their feelings and avoid the hurt and fears they all want to be too cool to have.
There is living on the streets and the drudgery of a band constantly packing up its Ford Transit and moving from one cheap hotel to the next.
But the director uses a great device to imbue scenes with tension and momentum, sneaking us little flash-forwards in the lives of the characters, silent clips of where they will soon be - whether it's having sex on a toilet or dead.
Along the way we see the band playing, and have their music on the soundtrack giving a great authentic feel.
The film isn't about the band though, it's about the women who follow them. What looks like it is starting out as a moralistic tale about women getting abused by callous men in their naiveté, develops into something much more powerful.
The men are pushed into the background and hardly show any initiative. They are pretty much 2-dimensional, unobtrusive and show little in the way of being predators. One guy is painted that way, but is not ruthless and far from the centre of focus and actually does display more to his character.
I have a friend who went to an all-girls school and assures me that, as a man, I would never know how brutal a female pecking order can be. In films, we see it all the time with the core cliché of the beautiful girls who get usurped by the plainer girl who wins the heart of the hero. But it's usually there to show the underdog winning through despite the machinations of the beautiful stereotypes.
I feel this film does something quite rare. It makes women and their relationships the subject of the film, and attempts to make it authentic as well - even rarer.
It has the look of being docu-drama, with nothing glossy, as it tracks a young woman coming to London to join her friend in the big smoke. Dressed in duffel coat and thoroughly unschooled in life, she finds her friend not the perfect protector, though friendly and helpful.
Her friend holds, and guards, the coveted position of band-leader's girlfriend amongst a gaggle of groupies and is well ensconced in the life of swinging London.
There are drugs and sex, all of it mundane and unglamourous. People use the drugs to check their feelings and avoid the hurt and fears they all want to be too cool to have.
There is living on the streets and the drudgery of a band constantly packing up its Ford Transit and moving from one cheap hotel to the next.
But the director uses a great device to imbue scenes with tension and momentum, sneaking us little flash-forwards in the lives of the characters, silent clips of where they will soon be - whether it's having sex on a toilet or dead.
Along the way we see the band playing, and have their music on the soundtrack giving a great authentic feel.
The film isn't about the band though, it's about the women who follow them. What looks like it is starting out as a moralistic tale about women getting abused by callous men in their naiveté, develops into something much more powerful.
The men are pushed into the background and hardly show any initiative. They are pretty much 2-dimensional, unobtrusive and show little in the way of being predators. One guy is painted that way, but is not ruthless and far from the centre of focus and actually does display more to his character.
I have a friend who went to an all-girls school and assures me that, as a man, I would never know how brutal a female pecking order can be. In films, we see it all the time with the core cliché of the beautiful girls who get usurped by the plainer girl who wins the heart of the hero. But it's usually there to show the underdog winning through despite the machinations of the beautiful stereotypes.
I feel this film does something quite rare. It makes women and their relationships the subject of the film, and attempts to make it authentic as well - even rarer.