Mojo (1997)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

Jez Butterworth

Writers:

Jez Butterworth (play)
Jez Butterworth (screenplay)

Release Date:

10 July 1998 (UK)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The sexual rivalries over a new, potentially great rock'n'roll singer between a nightclub owner and a local gangster cause unrest and eventually lead to murder.

Plot Keywords:

Singer | Gangster | Rivalry | Nightclub | East End

Cast

Ian Hart	...	Mickey
Ewen Bremner	...	Skinny
Hans Matheson	...	Silver Johnny
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Alexander Armstrong	...	BBC Announcer (voice) (as Xander Armstrong)
David Baukham	...	Fat Policeman (as David Bauckham)
Kenneth Bryans	...	Roger
Jason Cheater	...	Knuckle Sandwich Boy
Tim Chimes	...	Bass Sax Player
Paul Ebsworth	...	Raymond
Kate Lynn Evans	...	Knuckle Sandwich Girl (as Kate Evans)
Al Fiorentini	...	Luigi
Aidan Gillen	...	Baby
Milly Gregory	...	Guildford Girl
Damian Hand	...	Tenor Sax Player
James Hunter	...	Percy
Martin Gwynn Jones	...	Sweets
Dave Lagnado	...	Bass Player
Harold Pinter	...	Sam Ross
Andy Serkis	...	Potts
Shend	...	Naked Man
Ricky Tomlinson	...	Ezra
Mke Watts	...	Drummer

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:15

Filming Locations:

S&M Cafe - 4-6 Essex Road, Islington, London, England, UK

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Trivia:

Jim Broadbent was offered the role of Sam Ross.

Goofs:

Continuity: After the bike has been thrown off the roof, its position changes by the second shot. The front wheel, which had rolled across the road, is also lying next to the frame by the time a crowd hesitantly approaches.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Venice Report (1997) (TV)

Lost Mojo

'Mojo' is a story of fifties London, a world of budding rock stars, violence and forced homosexuality. 'Mojo' uses a technique for shooting the 1950s often seen in films that stresses the physical differences to our own time but also represents dialogue in a highly exaggerated fashion (owing much to the way that speech was represented in films made in that period); I have no idea if people actually spoke like this outside of the movies, but no films made today and set in contemporary times use such stylised language. It's as if the stilted discourse of 1950s screenwriters serves a common shorthand for a past that seems, in consequence, a very distant country indeed; and therefore stresses the particular, rather than the universal, in the story. 'Mojo' features a strong performance from Ian Hart and annoying ones from Aiden Gillan and Ewan Bremner, the latter still struggling to build a post-'Trainspotting' career; but feels like a period piece, a modern film incomprehensibly structured in an outdated idiom. Rather dull, actually.