Produced by Portishead co-founder the musician-producer, this scabrous though undernourished first film casts a critical gaze on the ecstasy-fueled club scene. Venal drug user David (Marc Bessant) initially steals from an passed-out supplier, then in a later recollection tries to burgle his own parents. In no time, he's overturned in the wreckage of his car in a woodland – and subject to the angry eye of the Poacher (vocalist Jason Williamson). Refusing to extricate David, with no time for city dwellers, he is a fractured society embodied: “You’re one of those noisy cunts from up on the heath.”
Unsteady Opening and Darkly Funny Confrontation
The film begins uncertainly, spending too long on pedantically chronicling David’s attempt to extricate himself from his seatbelt, while clumsily segueing into past scenes of his normal activities. The central theme – that the ecstasy generation were primarily out for number one – is clearly conveyed. But these vignettes are too thin to adequately prepare us for what to expect when the Woodsman turns up, enraged after David strangles his dog. Nevertheless, a darkly funny duel unfolds – David eager to get away; the Poacher withholding his jerrycan of scrumpy, determined to dousing him instead in embittered discourse. Williamson, projecting heavy threat in the role, is reminiscent of Michael Smiley.
Stylish Imagery and Music Video Sensibility
There is only one key story turn, but it results in a hilariously staged chaotic run on the forest trails that dips close to rural terror. Director John Minton at last unleashes with his showy imagery: where he was focused intently doing impressionistic closeups of bugs in headlights in the opening part, he now lets rip with the full lysergic grand display, accompanied by a frenzied keyboard rendition 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 and others into making the leap from the UK video industry.
The film releases in UK and Irish theaters from 17 November.
