The work of Bristol sound co-founder Geoff Barrow, this scabrous if slight first film casts a critical gaze on 90s rave culture. Self-serving drug user David (the actor) initially steals from an passed-out supplier, then in another flashback tries to break into his own family home. In no time, he's upside down in the wreckage of his car in a woodland – and subject to the angry eye of the Woodsman (vocalist Jason Williamson). Refusing to extricate David, with impatience toward townies, he is a fractured society embodied: “You’re one of those noisy cunts from up on the heath.”
Unsteady Opening and Grimly Amusing Confrontation
Game gets off to a shaky start, lingering excessively on pedantically chronicling David’s attempt to free himself from his safety harness, while clumsily segueing into flashbacks of his everyday life. The central theme – that the ecstasy generation were mainly focused on number one – is firmly made. But these brief episodes are too thin to adequately prepare us for what to expect when the Poacher arrives, enraged after David kills his dog. Nevertheless, a darkly funny standoff unfolds – David eager to get away; the Woodsman denying his container of scrumpy, determined to soaking him instead in embittered discourse. Williamson, projecting ponderous menace in the role, is evocative of Michael Smiley.
Visual Flair and Promo-Inspired Sensibility
There is only one key story turn, but it results in a comically executed rampage on the woodland paths that dips close to rural terror. Director John Minton finally gets to go all in with his showy imagery: where he was hunkered down doing impressionistic closeups of insects in the light in the opening part, he now lets rip with the full psychedelic grand display, soundtracked to a frenzied keyboard rendition of Ravel’s Boléro. The movie resembles an elongated music video than a complete narrative, but there’s enough bold visuals to suggest that Minton could emulate Jonathan Glazer, Garth Jennings et al into making the leap from the UK video industry.
Game releases in British and Irish cinemas from November 17.
