This is a film that had the potential to be good but fails to hit the mark in the end.
It starts well with a stylish Black 'n' White picture which is well shot and captures the mood of the lead protagonists state of mind.
Cavan Clerkin takes the lead as the Mr Average Simon who appears to have moved to The North East of England to take a job in a dead end call centre where selling rubbish products over the phone to the public is the order of the day.
He spends his nights having a few pints with a work colleague then trudges back home to his wife who is equally dissatisfied with life. She wants to move back to London so she can get a job in whatever he chosen field is. The reasons for them being there are never explained but there seems to be a growing enmity because of that.
Simon decides to join a local gym which is full of your boring stereotypical steroid freak types who look to bully Simon. He is determined to not be put off despite the menacing and dismissive attitude of the manager of the gym to lose weight and get in shape.
Whilst training there he meets a unhinged ex squaddie called Terry (Tel), Who regales the younger meat heads with stories of his thuggish ways and casual bigotry of menacing door staff in the "Night Club Scene." The character is played by Craig Fairbrass who does his now usual type cast well worn "Pat Tate" impression.
Terry takes Simon under his wing which then careers into a coercive bullying relationship which Simon goes along with due to his state of mind. You now expect this deranged "Buddy" film to go down that well trodden path but it takes crazy turn, With the film descending into a convoluted mess !
The film is a Hotchpot of ideas thrown together by the director Gerard Johnson which rip off Shane Meadows, Ken Loach, David Lynch respectively. The middle section of the film is the real kicker where the director thinks it is somehow a good idea to go down the "Tinto Brass" route from 1979's "Caligula" with an identical and lurid outcome which is basically "Pornography" !
The last section of the film is equally off putting as there is no satisfactory ending to the film. This is where you are left feeling is there a "Lynchian Allegory" here for us to decipher ? Answers on a postcard...
There is a decent cast here with good performances from Clerkin, Fairbrass and Lorraine Burroughs who is on point as Crystal. It's just a shame the director had to spoil what could have been a decent film.
Cavan Clerkin takes the lead as the Mr Average Simon who appears to have moved to The North East of England to take a job in a dead end call centre where selling rubbish products over the phone to the public is the order of the day.
He spends his nights having a few pints with a work colleague then trudges back home to his wife who is equally dissatisfied with life. She wants to move back to London so she can get a job in whatever he chosen field is. The reasons for them being there are never explained but there seems to be a growing enmity because of that.
Simon decides to join a local gym which is full of your boring stereotypical steroid freak types who look to bully Simon. He is determined to not be put off despite the menacing and dismissive attitude of the manager of the gym to lose weight and get in shape.
Whilst training there he meets a unhinged ex squaddie called Terry (Tel), Who regales the younger meat heads with stories of his thuggish ways and casual bigotry of menacing door staff in the "Night Club Scene." The character is played by Craig Fairbrass who does his now usual type cast well worn "Pat Tate" impression.
Terry takes Simon under his wing which then careers into a coercive bullying relationship which Simon goes along with due to his state of mind. You now expect this deranged "Buddy" film to go down that well trodden path but it takes crazy turn, With the film descending into a convoluted mess !
The film is a Hotchpot of ideas thrown together by the director Gerard Johnson which rip off Shane Meadows, Ken Loach, David Lynch respectively. The middle section of the film is the real kicker where the director thinks it is somehow a good idea to go down the "Tinto Brass" route from 1979's "Caligula" with an identical and lurid outcome which is basically "Pornography" !
The last section of the film is equally off putting as there is no satisfactory ending to the film. This is where you are left feeling is there a "Lynchian Allegory" here for us to decipher ? Answers on a postcard...
There is a decent cast here with good performances from Clerkin, Fairbrass and Lorraine Burroughs who is on point as Crystal. It's just a shame the director had to spoil what could have been a decent film.