Helmed by Portishead co-founder Geoff Barrow, this scabrous if slight first film casts a critical gaze on the ecstasy-fueled club scene. Self-serving drug user David (Marc Bessant) first robs an passed-out supplier, then in another flashback tries to break into his own parents. In no time, he's overturned in the wreckage of his car in a forest – and subject to the wrathful eye of the Poacher (vocalist Jason Williamson). Declining to free David, with no time for city dwellers, he is a fractured society embodied: “You’re one of those loud individuals from up on the heath.”
A Shaky Start and Darkly Funny Confrontation
The film begins uncertainly, spending too long on meticulously detailing David’s attempt to extricate himself from his safety harness, while clumsily segueing into flashbacks of his everyday life. The central theme – that the rave-era youth were mainly focused on number one – is clearly conveyed. But these brief episodes are too thin to properly prime us for what to expect when the Poacher arrives, fuming after David kills his dog. Nevertheless, a grimly amusing standoff takes hold – David eager to get away; the Poacher denying his container of cider, determined to soaking him instead in embittered discourse. Williamson, exuding heavy threat in the role, is evocative of Michael Smiley.
Visual Flair and Promo-Inspired Sensibility
Just a single important plot development, but it leads to a hilariously staged chaotic run on the forest trails that dips close to folk horror. Filmmaker John Minton at last unleashes with his ostentatious visuals: where he was hunkered down doing artful shots of bugs in headlights in the opening part, he now goes all out with the full lysergic 21-gun salute, soundtracked to a wild organ version of Ravel’s Boléro. The movie resembles an elongated music video than a fully fledged drama, but there’s enough strident imagery to suggest that Minton could follow Jonathan Glazer, Garth Jennings et al into making the leap from the Brit music promo scene.
Game is in UK and Irish theaters from 17 November.
