Helmed by Portishead co-founder Geoff Barrow, this scabrous if slight first film casts a critical gaze on 90s rave culture. Self-serving drug user David (Marc Bessant) initially steals from an unconscious dealer, then in another flashback tries to break into his own parents. In no time, he's upside down in the wreckage of his car in a woodland – and subject to the angry eye of the Poacher (Sleaford Mods frontman Jason Williamson). Declining to free David, with no time for city dwellers, he is a fractured society personified: “You’re one of those noisy cunts from up on the heath.”
Unsteady Opening and Grimly Amusing Confrontation
Game gets off to a shaky start, lingering excessively on meticulously detailing David’s attempt to free himself from his safety harness, while awkwardly transitioning into flashbacks of his normal activities. The bigger point – that the rave-era youth were primarily out for number one – is clearly conveyed. But these brief episodes are insufficiently developed to adequately prepare us for what to expect when the Woodsman turns up, fuming after David kills his dog. Nevertheless, a darkly funny duel takes hold – David eager to get away; the Poacher withholding his jerrycan of cider, intent on dousing him instead in embittered discourse. Williamson, exuding heavy threat in the role, is evocative of Michael Smiley.
Stylish Imagery and Music Video Sensibility
There is only one key story turn, but it results in a hilariously staged rampage on the woodland paths that dips close to rural terror. Director John Minton finally gets to go all in with his ostentatious visuals: where he was focused intently doing impressionistic closeups of insects in the light in the opening part, he now goes all out with the full psychedelic 21-gun salute, accompanied by a frenzied keyboard rendition of Ravel’s Boléro. The movie resembles an elongated music video than a complete narrative, but there’s enough bold visuals to suggest that Minton could follow Jonathan Glazer, Garth Jennings et al into successfully graduating from the Brit music promo scene.
The film is in UK and Irish cinemas from 17 November.
