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Visitors Review

bob the moo 2012-05-17 07:32:18

So-so film driven by Considine but it could have been so much better with a little more effort

A few years after the heights of This is England, Shane Meadows andPaddy Considine came out with this little seen film which is a sort ofreality-mockumentary. The film follows a roadie of sorts ahead of himsetting up for the Arctic Monkeys and also trying to secure a warm-upslot for podgy white rapper Scor-Zay-zee. In the style of a realityshow it is mostly unscripted as it follows Le Donk around from hisparent's home to his pregnant ex-girlfriend.This sat on my queue for quite some time before I finally decided towatch it and I think the reasons for this are pretty clear. Even fromthe description the film looks like something that was thrown togetherin about five days on the barest expenses and it looks like that mightbe a bad thing, despite it being something the makers boast about. Thisis exactly what the film turns out to be though and it is not always agood thing. Working with a very basic script and improvising a lot ofstuff is tougher than it looks; you think it must be possible to workit out in the edit but the truth must be you have hours of rubbishbecause the reason people sound cool in movies is that it is scripted,rehearsed and refined – in real life you have to just say whatevercomes, which isn't that good often. And so it is in this film becausewhat is missing from it is meaning.It is character driven – they are in the titles, they are the focus ofthe plot and they are the only reason cameras are there – so it onlystands to reason we have a film about them as characters. The door isopen in particular for the film to find the person behind the swaggerand noise in Le Donk but the film never does it. It would be tough toachieve this all improvised but it could have been done with clearerscene structure and direction, and it would have made the film betterby some margin as it would have given something for the viewer tofollow. It sort of happens, but that's about the height of it becausemostly Le Donk is a comedy character (who isn't particularly funny) andwe don't learn a terrible lot about him.This isn't Considine's fault though, because he at least makes the filmwatchable by virtue of his performance. He is an arrogant idiot who isfull of unjustified toughness and it shows to everyone except him. Iwould have loved Meadows to partially script some scenes to make moreof this character but I guess that what happens when you limit yourselfto a few days to make the film. Palinczuk is likable and has someability with writing for sure, but again there isn't a person here –what you see is all we're allowed to get. Colman is an odd find but isnatural here, while the star power of the Arctic Monkeys at leastdoesn't get in the way of the film.Overall though, this is a so-so film. It is driven forward by Considineand the gimmick of how it was all made, but these are not enough ontheir own. It works well considering it was improvised but to be honestit could have done with a bit more of a structure in terms of thecharacters to allow us to benefit from it being so tightly focused onthem. This is a novelty, but it could have been better with just alittle bit more work in regards character and character development.Worth a glance for Meadows/Considine fans, but for the casual viewer itwill feel like a joke stretched thin.

Ron Plasma 2012-05-16 15:32:06

Off Beat

As you might imagine, I had great expectations of this film, indeed Ihave great expectations of any film starring Britain's scariest actorPaddy Considine. But this was yet another sleight outing from ShaneMeadows who had the semi-eponymous Mr Considine giving a fineperformance, but, mysteriously, as David Brent!Nevermind, I found his companion-in-title Scor-Zay-Zee fascinating, allthe more so when I contemplate he is actually a rapper! Extra markswere on offer if Shane had turned his camera across the road at thefinal Arctic Monkeys gig for a quick shot of my old school.All in all, an opportunity missed!Ron(Viewed 10Oct09)