timhowgego Reviews

London to Brighton (2006)

Unexpectedly captivating

[7/10 · 24 August 2006]

The plot of London to Brighton is simple, the budget minimal, the actors and writer/director unknown. But the result is an unexpectedly captivating movie.

London to Brighton follows a prostitute and a young run-away as they flee from their recent past: From London to Brighton, no less. Through a well-balanced series of flashbacks, we gradually learn how they came to be running. The movie's tension slowly builds as those who are chasing them draw closer. The premise isn't revolutionary, but the delivery is robust. Half the characters spend half the time not knowing what is happening around them. Like the best thrillers, there is still enough to keep the audience guessing right to the end.

The movie is underscored by a very British portrayal of urban mob violence - gritty and selectively brutal, with language to match. The characters are explored just enough to give the movie some depth.

The issues contained within the movie are morally challenging. While there is little explicit sexual content, the mere context will be enough to make some viewers uncomfortable. It would be easy to impose "middle-class" morality, but fortunately that doesn't happen. Instead the characters react only at the extremes: The prostitute with misgivings about sex involving very young children; not the prostitute with misgivings about prostitution.

London to Brighton is notable because it places a 13 year old actor in one of the leading roles. The performance is raw and the look of innocence genuine. Yet she portrays events and emotions that she can have no experience of with disturbing competence. To paraphrase the director, "she certainly won't be allowed to see the film when it released in the cinema".

The movie is rough round the edges. It drags in places. Sometimes the acting doesn't quite convey all the emotions it could do. It is easy to find fault in the detail. But overall London to Brighton is an impressive first feature by 'Paul Andrew Williams' and most of the cast.

Glastonbury (2006)

A lot like a home wedding video: If you were there, watching it back will probably be a fantastic experience. If not, expect to struggle in places.

[5/10 · 5 June 2006]

Glastonbury feels a lot like a home wedding video: If you were there, watching it back will probably be a fantastic experience. If not, expect to struggle in places.

The movie is a mix of music, background events and smiley faces in silly costumes. While the smiley faces are important if you intend to create a sense of the atmosphere, two hours of this starts to drag. As you might expect, there is a fair bit of music, although inevitably only a tiny proportion of all the acts that have appeared at the festival over the years. Some clever production techniques are used, such as mixing performances from different years together, and using specific songs to provide a narrative to other festival scenes.

But this subtle narrative is about all there is to guide the uninitiated through the movie. This might be acceptable for the music, but not the interviewees. The movie seems to revel in this to the point of arrogance: Early on, it includes a scene in which the organiser, Michael Eavis, is talking to festival goers who have no idea who he is - much like me at that point in the movie.

Background events and history are covered, but not very well explored. Genuinely interesting themes, such as the involvement of travellers and the growing commercialisation of the festival, are dealt with rather too quickly. There is a lot of social history here, which could have made this quite a challenging documentary. But perhaps if Glastonbury had covered these fully, I would be bemoaning the lack of music or complaining it didn't convey a festival atmosphere?

The Truth (2006)

Curious, but Clever

[6/10 · 16 January 2006]

The Truth is a very clever dark comedy. So clever that it isn't at all easy to adjust to - for the first few minutes you'll stare blankly at the screen, unsure what to make of it: The Truth is a real mush-mash of genres and styles. But once it gets going, it isn't at all bad.

The Truth starts as a satire of spiritual self-help retreats. The characters - an eclectic mix including wheelchair bound Candy and Croatian refugee Mia - attend Donna's 'course' at a house set deep in the Scottish Highlands. The movie gradually explores their dark secrets, managing to make some quite challenging situations entertaining. Of course it is only a matter of time before someone turns up dead...

I thought The Truth should have been about five minutes shorter. The end doesn't fit with the tone of the rest of the movie. But perhaps it was never supposed to. Maybe The Truth is just too clever for its audience?

Night People (2005)

Competent, but somehow hollow

[6/10 · 3 November 2005]

Night People tries to be both a gritty account of life at the bottom of society in contemporary Edinburgh, and a heart-warming story of hope. The interaction of these two concepts ultimately felt too contrived: I needed to be better convinced that some of the characters really could break out from their stereotypes in the way the film wanted me to believe.

The film is entirely character-driven. It is centred on several disparate groups of people, who are merely living out events at the same time and in the same city. The screenplay constantly switches between their individual plots. Night People might be described as a series of short films on similar themes that have been carefully edited together. But that would be unfair. The film needs this variety to disguise the fact that each of the characters spends most of their time in the same location. Unfortunately, since the film is developing half a dozen different stories at once, I think it struggles to give individual characters enough screen-time to engage fully with the audience.

Night People has a lot going for it. Visually it is very well crafted. The film makes clever use of Edinburgh's ever-changing light and sky to create some visually stunning interludes, which give the other scenes a sense of time and place. The script is strong: Some fantastic one-liners, and the kind of small observations on the human condition that everyone can relate to. Perhaps some of the funniest lines are delivered a 'wee' bit too quickly for non-Scottish audiences to comprehend. Overall the acting is first class, in spite of the relative inexperience of most of the cast.

But in the final analysis, Night People doesn't quite hang together. It's on the verge of being a really good film, but yet it left me feeling hollow.

GamerZ (2005)

Brilliantly weird

[8/10 · 28 October 2005]

On one level GamerZ follows a group of people for whom reality has two meanings: Their own persona, and that of their role-play game character. The film slowly twists one persona into the other - both on screen and in the mind of the viewer. Ultimately it blurs the line between genius and insanity, fantasy and reality, in quite a thought-provoking way.

At a second level, it attempts to create interesting dialogue between characters that are socially inept outcasts, whose prime activity is sitting round a table rolling dice. This could have created a very boring script indeed, but with a few exceptions, it doesn't. Instead GamerZ revels in its freedom to jump from the horrific to the sublime, from the lucid to the inane. Often in the same shot. The failure of the characters to interact 'normally' makes some exceptional comedy. Unfortunately GamerZ's screenplay is weakened by its meagre special effects budget. While attempts to convey 'in-game' actions using silhouettes almost work, there are a few moments when the cardboard cutouts on screen seek only to remind the viewer that Hollywood would never make a movie like this.

Down at level three GamerZ is underscored by some quite familiar themes of love, envy and growing maturity; not to mention fetishes, joyriding, and a few other things. These themes meld well with the earlier levels, but probably won't hold the film together on their own.

I suspect that if you find yourself stuck at level 3 of the dungeon, you'll walk out disappointed. This film isn't for everyone. But open your mind a little and GamerZ achieves something quite rare. It entertains and challenges. And it does both in a quite unexpected way.