Produced by Portishead co-founder the musician-producer, this sharp-edged though undernourished first film turns a sceptical eye on 90s rave culture. Venal drug user David (Marc Bessant) first robs an passed-out supplier, then in another flashback tries to burgle his own family home. In no time, he's upside down in the wreckage of his car in a forest – and subject to the angry eye of the Poacher (vocalist Jason Williamson). Refusing to extricate David, with no time for city dwellers, he is broken Britain embodied: “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, spending too long on meticulously detailing David’s attempt to extricate himself from his safety harness, while awkwardly transitioning into past scenes of his everyday life. The bigger point – that the ecstasy generation were mainly focused on themselves – is firmly made. But these vignettes are too thin to properly prime us for what to expect when the Poacher arrives, enraged after David kills his dog. Nevertheless, a darkly funny standoff unfolds – David eager to get away; the Woodsman withholding his jerrycan of scrumpy, intent on dousing him instead in embittered discourse. Williamson, projecting heavy threat in the role, is reminiscent of Michael Smiley.
Stylish Imagery and Promo-Inspired Sensibility
There is only one important plot development, but it leads to a hilariously staged rampage on the woodland paths that veers toward rural terror. Director John Minton at last unleashes with his ostentatious visuals: where he was hunkered down doing impressionistic closeups of bugs in headlights in the early stages, he now goes all out with the full psychedelic grand display, 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 emulate Jonathan Glazer, Garth Jennings et al into successfully graduating from the UK video industry.
The film releases in British and Irish theaters from November 17.
