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Reviews
Dropping Gear (2019)
Drop what you're doing right now and watch 'Dropping Gear'
Ever since the dawn of time, man has been fascinated with the idea of expanding one's mind. Through a chain of events, the drug movie was invented. Films like 'Easy Rider' and 'The Panic in Needle Park' cemented the sub-genre into cinema-goer's hearts. The drug movie is one of the most common things a student filmmaker can put to the sliver screen. This leads to the unfortunate fact that making a drug film as a student filmmaker is cliched. 'Dropping Gear' definitely flirts with the danger in that regard but manages to avoid the cliche with such chutzpah.
The film was made by Jack Weir, a bright new face on the film making scene. People may know Weir from his revolutionary YouTube channel Spogwam. Foreign movie fans will probably know him from his critically acclaimed Gaelic work. Dropping Gear, his first major work in the English language, shows a keen development from the early Gaelic shorts. The film's gritty tale of a wayward youth's mistake of buying drugs may sound like it has been done before but is well-acted enough to take a bold new spin on the drug genre.
An inadvertent influence seems to be Ken Loach. The natural lighting, the use of non-Hollywood actors are taken from the textbook of realism film making. Dropping Gear is also notable for it's male nudity. Don't worry, nothing full frontal, just a set of abs destined to make women swoon.
Would I recommend 'Dropping Gear'?. Yes! Am I biased because I know the director? Maybe. Bias or no bias, I still think you (the humble reader) should check it out. Give the boy a chance!