I did a film course with Eric, the writer/director a year and a bit ago (the course mentioned in the trivia. I recommend it to all budding film-makers who live in or around London - Elliot really knows his stuff) and when he made this film he sent me a DVD and asked me what I thought. Considering this film was made for practically NOTHING - no real crew, using friends as actors, filming on the streets early in the morning - I was impressed.
I loved the initial premise of an hour of real-time where two friends reconcile their differences after a couple of farcical misunderstandings. It's a shame that the whole movie wasn't one take (as originally intended) but the long shots - as they are - were pretty incredible, I thought. The first shot, for example, goes from a train to a train station, into the street, to a house about half a mile away, upstairs, downstairs, outside again and into a car - an amazingly organised set-up if you ask me. And the last five minutes, where they get the car back by stealing another one to go after it, was brilliantly executed - and genuinely surprising (I expected it to end on the bridge after they'd forgiven each other).
However, the film's greatest strength is it's dialogue. When you have dialogue that's full of pop culture referencing, it's easy to slip into wannabe-Tarantino territory, but (in the taxi scene, specifically) it genuinely felt like two friends who love films just having a chat (their comments about Spider-man 3 and James Bond were hilarious!) And I thought the backstory was really well-woven in amongst all the film talk. By the end you really felt like you had spent an hour in the company of two friends as they've fought and made up, and gotten to know them as well. The fact that the cast were friends in real life helped make the performances naturalistic.
I understand what the other user said about losing respect about for the characters after they steal the car at the end, but then again, Jim did run Jeff over and Jeff did break into Jim's house - that was okay, but stealing a car is wrong? I thought it was hilarious - It is a black comedy after all, so you kind of have to just go with it. Jeff didn't force Jim to steal it out of maliciousness - he just wanted to make things right for his friend. Aw, bless him(!)
The film's main flaws / weaknesses: admittedly, some of the dialogue scenes go on a little bit too long, like the first one where Jim and Mary are walking home, and when Jim and Jeff are waiting for the taxi. The dialogue is still good, but it's like we're marking time waiting for the next plot point. Also, there are times when a steadicam would have really come in handy. Overall, the cameraman did a good job, but in the scenes where he's walking backwards the shakiness is distracting (I only saw it on DVD, so I can't imagine how it would look on the big screen). Sound is another issue in the street scenes - the dubbing is mostly well-matched, but the mixing with the street noise makes it obvious. A shame.
However, If this is what he can do with practically no resources, I love to see what he could achieve with a proper crew and budget. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long to find out - well done mate!
5 out of 8 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Tell Your Friends