Tag: indie

Bad Guys

Posted on by Jack Hawkins

Roger Corman, the pope of pop cinema, once said: “The worst thing you can do is have a limited budget and try to do some big looking film. That’s when you end up with very bad work.” Happily, with a nano-budget of just £200, indie filmmakers Jack Sambrook and Will Unsworth are well aware of their limitations, and Bad Guys is all the better for it.

Corman learned the ropes with trashy horror movies, but this Brighton duo have drawn inspiration from the kitchen sink flavours of the British indie scene, namely Ben Wheatley’s Kill List and Down Terrace. As a result, the film’s influences are worn on its sleeve, but this is all part of the Corman philosophy – watch a load of movies, understand how they work, and turn this knowledge into your own cineliterate, nuts-and-bolts feature.

The story, which is a road trip-cum-crime caper, follows Gaz (Sambrook) and Cal (Unsworth), a pair of lowly debt collectors operating in a grey and gloomy Brighton. The dynamic is one you can imagine – Gaz is aloof and stand-offish, while Cal is loquacious, reckless and prone to violent outbursts. When Cal’s temper kills a man, the young men are ordered to drive the body north and bury it in the countryside.

The film’s bleak tone is framed by Rowan Holford’s striking cinematography, which combines long static shots and handheld work that skilfully balances rawness and fluidity. Particularly absorbing are the driving montages through Britain’s bypasses and winding, canopied B-roads, deftly capturing the motion and sensation of travel. Indeed, there is an elemental streak that runs throughout Bad Guys, which is complemented by Matt Unsworth’s orchestral, Carter Burwell-inflected score.

The real draw, however, is the chemistry between the leads. Sambrook is appropriately crabby as Gaz, making the rules as he goes along in an attempt to control Cal, who chinwags with anyone who’ll listen. Gaz does lighten up, though, and their exchanges consider everything from petrol station confectionary to a revelatory discussion of the female urethra. The dialogue never feels contrived and no wisecracks fall flat, which is a reflection of the leads’ performances and their collaboration on the script.

Another merit is a small but marked flair for suspense, which is ratcheted in a bathroom encounter between Gaz and a faceless, ominous stranger. It reminds you that these young men, barely into their twenties, are in a grave situation with some very dubious people.

We love indie film here at DMovies, so it is always a delight when an accomplished nano-budget feature like Bad Guys appears on our radar. Sambrook and Unsworth will have more cash for their next film, no doubt, but this won’t mar their grounded, kitchen sink sensibilities – it will bolster them.

Bad Guys is available on Amazon Prime in the UK now.

Amanda

Posted on by Jack Hawkins

When Isis surpassed Al-Qaeda as the leading jihadist group in 2014, the following three years would see a wave of terrorism sweep across the Continent, killing dozens in France, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Spain and the UK. Of these countries, France was hit hardest, with over 200 people dying between 2015 and 2017. This spectre of tragedy looms over Amanda, Mikhaël Hers’s quiet, unassuming drama.

The title refers to 7-year-old Amanda (Isaure Multrier), who lives with her mother Sandrine (Ophélia Kolb), an English teacher at the local école. Amanda and her mother have an authentic chemistry that’s established in flowing, naturalistic sequences in their light and airy Parisian apartment. Particularly endearing is a scene in which Sandrine explains to her curious daughter the meaning of ‘Elvis has left the building’, which, I must add, educated me as well as young Amanda.

All of this is tinged with dread, for Sandrine, we know, will be killed in a terrorist attack. When this moment comes there is no punch to the gut, but there is no cheap sentimentalism, either. The real pain comes after the event when David (Vincent Lacoste), Sandrine’s twenty-something brother, has to explain to Amanda what happened to her poor mum.

It is David who carries the bulk of the emotional weight in this tragedy. His occupation is that of factotum; when he’s not greeting tourists at Gare du Nord for a vaguely dubious landlord, he’s pruning trees and shrubs at local parks. He’s a good guy though; he may lack ambition and direction but he has a shaggy-haired affability that suggests he’ll get his sh*t together at some point.

David’s prospects are spiced up when he meets Lena (Stacy Martin), a Gallic beauty who moves into one of his employer’s properties. You feel the butterflies in their stomach as they hit it off, such is the understated power of Hers’s direction and the actors’ performances. Lena, however, is also caught up in the attack, suffering wounds to her arm and, most perniciously, her mind.

This is what Amanda is about – the fallout of tragedy. A moment’s violence can cause a lifetime of suffering, but it can also heal old wounds, too. For David and Amanda, Sandrine’s tragic death becomes an olive branch to Alison (Greta Scaachi), David’s estranged mother who moved to London long before her granddaughter was born. It is unclear whether amends will be made in the long run, but the situation rings true for those who have experienced such familial shock.

Ultimately, despite its context, Amanda proves to be a warm, subtle film with an effortless naturalism, yet it lacks a visceral quality that could have made it a more absorbing, affecting piece of work.

Amanda is in cinemas Friday, January 3rd.

Do Something, Jake

Posted on by victorfraga

This charming crime thriller, directed by James Smith and written by both Smith and Caroline Spence is a neatly plotted tale of an unlikely hero, Jake (Jamie Alderson).

We quickly learn from his limp job centre interviews with Bob (M.J. Simson) and his breakfast chats with the delivery guy (John Savage) that Jake is illiterate and stuck in a cycle of failed jobs and daytime gaming. Around 15 per cent (5.1 million) of adults in the UK are functionally illiterate; it is significant that Smith and Spence chose this protagonist for their story. Jake’s difficulties with reading and writing are presented sympathetically and portrayed as something that could happen to anyone.

The communication difficulty is hampering Jake and we see him taking steps to learn to read and write. The new skill pays off later in the plot when he becomes the amateur investigator of an illegal drug operation. Jake’s driving force throughout the story is his love for neighbour Alice (Mia Mills) watching her every move surreptitiously and concerned for her wellbeing as she is being beaten by her boyfriend Guy (Thomas Loone). Guy and Alice are well played by Mills and Loone, we believe they are a couple and find ourselves drawn in to Jake’s plan to rescue her from the abuse.

Moments of humour occur at key points in the plot. Jake following the drug dealers to their hideout in a three wheeler driven by Grumpy Man (David Brown) is genius. There is a hilarious cameo from Sue Moore as the grumpy woman, a lovely pay off from the glimpses of her earlier in the narrative. Social Services Woman’s (Nenaa-Jo Uraih) interactions with Jake are marvellous.

This is an ambitious film to make on a zero budget and at times the lack of resources shows. The locations for the Police Station and interview rooms distract the viewer from the story as it is impossible to believe that we are in this setting. Too much time is spent on shots of Jake watching Alice, with cutaways to details of his calendar notes on the movements of Guy and his criminal colleagues.

The guitar music (James Ryan) is effective driving us towards the story’s conclusion, but we become tired of the guitar plucking single notes to denote tension. A tighter edit of some of these moments might have given us a faster paced story.

However, the filmmakers are to be commended for what they have achieved on a limited budget. Laugh out loud moments are threaded throughout this Midlands set thriller with a heart of gold. Overall it is a watchable film with a central character that we do not often see as a hero on screen.

Do Something, Jake premiered in London in mid-November. A general release date has not been announced yet. Click here for more information about the film sales, press and media.

Winter Ridge

Posted on by victorfraga

Tragedy strikes somewhere in dark and quiet rural Britain. And it’s a double whammy for detective Ryan Barnes (Matt Hookings). His wife is in a comma following a major car accident. On top of that, he has to investigate an increasingly sinister murder spree, in which the victims seem to have one common trait: they are old and vulnerable. Not even the idyllic backdrop can offset the toxic mix of personal drama and professional test than has befallen the young and good-looking Ryan.

It’s hard to avoid clichés in a detective and serial killer thriller, yet Winter Ridge carefully dodges all predictable twists and empty platitudes. This isn’t your average adrenaline-inducing action indie. This is a multilayered and profound endeavour dealing with a very serious and complex condition: Alzheimer’s Disease.

It turns out that all the murder victims suffer from some degree of dementia, and the quality of their lives is increasingly precarious. This raises a lot of questions. why would anyone target such vulnerable people? Are these mercy killings? Or are there pecuniary interests? Is someone playing God? Or is there a far more sinister explanation?

The doctor caring for the Alzheimer’s patients Joanne Hill (Hannah Waddington) has a succinct explanation for their affliction: “when the sun dims so too can consciousness; that’s an evolutionary trait we’ve all inherited but for Alzheimers patients it’s far more heightened”. The fallibility of memory is a recurring theme throughout the movie. Alan Ford (who is beginning to look a lot like Lord Heseltine) delivers an outstanding performance as Dales Jacobs, whose advanced condition means that he’s constantly and desperately searching for his long-gone wife, and often fails to recognise his own granddaughter. He confesses to Ryan that he can remember what he read on a pebble years ago, yet often forgets far more recent and significant events. “It’s the small things that we remember”, he sums it up. Dales’s awareness of his condition and the inescapable prospect of deterioration make his predicament far more harrowing. And it isn’t just his mind that doesn’t work properly. His shaky fingers no longer allow him to paint the impressive countryside.

The action/drama takes place in the fictitious town of Black Rock. In reality, Winter Ridge is filmed in the North Devon. The dramatic coast is the perfect backdrop to these psychological thriller. The “ridge” in the movie title is a film character per se. The mountain range is a watershed, in both the metaphorical and the literal sense. The craggy geography of Southwest England will help to decide the fate of the most important characters. But that’s all I can tell you without spoiling the film.

The final sequence recycles a trope you will recognise from many mainstream movies, yet it very original in its execution, and the denouement is entirely unpredictable.

This is a filmic study of grief, loneliness, altruism, self-pity, accountability and the very meaning of life. These complex topics are delivered all with a small dose of adrenaline injected directly into your veins. In other words, Winter Ridge is good fun that’s not empty on the inside.

Winter Ridge is out in UK cinemas on Wednesday, September 5th. The movie was self-distributed by Camelot Productions, and it’s showing in more than 25 locations across the country – a remarkable achievement in terms of independent theatrical distribution.

Hearts Beat Loud

Posted on by victorfraga

Pleasant and breezy. Lighthearted and innocuous. But also a little colourless. Hearts Beat Loud is the latest American indie to hit UK cinemas. It’s refreshing and cool enough to keep you in the cinema for 95 minutes, away from the oppressive heatwave castigating the country outside. But it will pass through you immediately. Just like a Summer breeze.

Frank Fisher (Nick Offerman) is an avuncular, middle-aged and heavily-bearded widower who runs a struggling record shop in Brooklyn. His wife passed away to a tragic bicycle accident, and he was left to bring up their adolescent daughter Sam (Kiersey Clemons). The beautiful teen has been accepted into medical school. Frank attempts to strike a music partnership with Sam before she departs for her freshman year. Daddy wants to connect to his daughter through music. She finds that very uncool. Daddy sulks. Despite their differences, Frank and Sam record a song and it somehow ends up on Spotify. Sam’s hesitation to endorse the work is reflected in the very name that Frank chooses for the band: We’re Not a Band.

Daddy is the audience surrogate. He needs get his daughter to believe in the band, just like the filmmaker Brett Haley needs viewers to connect with his film. Frank is a dreamer. Sam is far more pragmatic, and she frowns upon her father’s capricious whims. She does not believe that she can make a living of music, despite a very beautiful voice vaguely reminiscent of Beyoncé if the Texas singer was an indie guitar artist. It’s down to Frank’s puerile vim to persuade his daughter to delay her studies for a year so that they can embark on this musical adventure.

Hearts Beat Loud is feelgood American indie that also looks a lot like an extended music video with loads of jamming and behind-the-scenes. It ticks the boxes of diversity: Sam is mixed raced and also in a same-sex relationship with Rose (Sasha Lane, a young and talented Afro-American actress who you will see in yet another Lesbian role in Desiree Akhavan’s The Miseducation of Cameron Post, out in just a few weeks). It uses music and comedy devices in an attempt to come across as sweet and appealing to a liberal audience as broad as possible. But it also feels a little contrived and formulaic in its attempt to please everyone.

The movie includes a few pearls of knowledge: “You don’t always get to do what you love, so you gotta learn to love what you do” and “Every song is a love song”. They are as flaky and airy as the emotions and lessons that the movie tries to convey. Still, this breezy film will likely touch your heart. Just don’t expect it to beat very loud!

Hearts Beat Loud is out in cinemas across the UK on Friday, August 3rd.