Produced by Bristol sound co-founder the musician-producer, this scabrous if undernourished debut feature casts a critical gaze on 90s rave culture. Venal pillhead David (Marc Bessant) first robs an passed-out supplier, then in a later recollection tries to burgle his own family home. In no time, he's upside down in the wreckage of his car in a woodland – and subject to the wrathful eye of the Poacher (Sleaford Mods frontman Jason Williamson). Refusing to extricate David, with impatience toward city dwellers, he is a fractured society personified: “You’re one of those loud individuals from up on the heath.”
Unsteady Opening and Grimly Amusing Duel
The film begins uncertainly, spending too long on pedantically chronicling David’s attempt to free himself from his seatbelt, while clumsily segueing into flashbacks of his normal activities. The central theme – that the rave-era youth were mainly focused on number one – is firmly made. But these brief episodes are insufficiently developed to adequately prepare us for what to expect when the Woodsman turns up, fuming after David kills his dog. Nevertheless, a darkly funny duel unfolds – David eager to get away; the Woodsman withholding his jerrycan of scrumpy, determined to dousing him instead in resentful talk. Williamson, projecting ponderous menace in the role, is evocative of Michael Smiley.
Stylish Imagery and Music Video Sensibility
Just a single important plot development, but it leads to a comically executed rampage on the woodland paths that veers toward folk horror. Director John Minton at last unleashes with his showy imagery: where he was focused intently doing artful shots of bugs in headlights in the opening part, he now goes all out with the full lysergic grand display, accompanied by a frenzied keyboard rendition of Ravel’s Boléro. Game feels more like an elongated music video than a fully fledged drama, but there’s enough strident imagery to suggest that Minton could emulate Jonathan Glazer, Garth Jennings et al into successfully graduating from the UK video industry.
Game is in British and Irish cinemas from 17 November.
