Helmed by Portishead co-founder Geoff Barrow, this sharp-edged if slight debut feature casts a critical gaze on 90s rave culture. Venal pillhead David (Marc Bessant) initially steals from an passed-out supplier, then in another flashback tries to burgle his own family home. In no time, he's overturned in the remains of his car in a woodland – and subject to the wrathful eye of the Poacher (Sleaford Mods frontman Jason Williamson). Declining to free 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.”
A Shaky Start and Grimly Amusing Confrontation
The film begins uncertainly, spending too long on pedantically chronicling David’s attempt to extricate himself from his seatbelt, while awkwardly transitioning into past scenes of his normal activities. The central theme – that the rave-era youth were mainly focused on number one – is clearly conveyed. But these brief episodes are too thin to properly prime us for what to expect when the Poacher arrives, enraged after David kills his dog. Still, a darkly funny standoff unfolds – David desperate to escape; the Poacher withholding his jerrycan of cider, intent on soaking him instead in embittered discourse. Williamson, projecting heavy threat in the role, is evocative of Michael Smiley.
Visual Flair and Promo-Inspired Sensibility
Just a single important plot development, but it results in a comically executed rampage on the woodland paths that veers toward rural terror. Filmmaker John Minton at last unleashes with his showy imagery: where he was focused intently doing impressionistic closeups of bugs in headlights in the early stages, he now lets rip with the full psychedelic grand display, soundtracked to a frenzied keyboard rendition of Ravel’s Boléro. Game feels more like an elongated music video than a complete narrative, but there’s enough strident imagery to suggest that Minton could follow Jonathan Glazer, Garth Jennings et al into successfully graduating from the Brit music promo scene.
Game releases in British and Irish cinemas from 17 November.
