Helmed by Portishead co-founder Geoff Barrow, this sharp-edged though slight first film casts a critical gaze on the ecstasy-fueled club scene. Self-serving drug user David (the actor) first robs an passed-out supplier, then in another flashback tries to burgle his own family home. Before you can say, he's upside down in the remains of his car in a woodland – and subject to the angry eye of the Woodsman (Sleaford Mods frontman Jason Williamson). Refusing to extricate 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.”
A Shaky Start and Darkly Funny Confrontation
The film begins uncertainly, spending too long on pedantically chronicling David’s attempt to extricate himself from his safety harness, while clumsily segueing into past scenes of his everyday life. The central theme – that the ecstasy generation were primarily out for themselves – is firmly made. But these vignettes are too thin to adequately prepare us for what to expect when the Poacher arrives, enraged after David strangles his dog. Nevertheless, a grimly amusing duel takes hold – David desperate to escape; the Poacher withholding his jerrycan of cider, determined to dousing him instead in resentful talk. Williamson, projecting ponderous menace in the role, is evocative of Michael Smiley.
Visual Flair and Promo-Inspired Sensibility
There is only one key story turn, but it results in a hilariously staged chaotic run on the forest trails that veers toward folk horror. Filmmaker John Minton at last unleashes with his ostentatious visuals: where he was focused intently doing impressionistic closeups of bugs in headlights in the opening part, he now goes all out with the full psychedelic grand display, soundtracked to a frenzied keyboard rendition of Ravel’s Boléro. Game feels more like an extended promo than a fully fledged drama, but there’s enough strident imagery to suggest that Minton could follow Jonathan Glazer, Garth Jennings et al into successfully graduating from the UK video industry.
Game releases in British and Irish cinemas from 17 November.
