The work of Bristol sound co-founder Geoff Barrow, this scabrous though undernourished debut feature casts a critical gaze on 90s rave culture. Venal drug user David (Marc Bessant) first robs an passed-out supplier, then in a later recollection tries to break into his own parents. Before you can say, he's overturned in the wreckage of his car in a woodland – and subject to the wrathful eye of the Poacher (Sleaford Mods frontman Jason Williamson). Declining to free David, with impatience toward city dwellers, he is a fractured society embodied: “You’re one of those loud individuals from up on the heath.”
Unsteady Opening and Darkly Funny Duel
Game gets off to a shaky start, spending too long on pedantically chronicling David’s attempt to extricate himself from his seatbelt, while clumsily segueing into past scenes of his everyday life. The bigger point – that the ecstasy generation were primarily out for number one – is clearly conveyed. But these brief episodes are too thin to properly prime us for what to expect when the Woodsman turns up, enraged after David strangles his dog. Still, a grimly amusing duel unfolds – David desperate to escape; the Woodsman denying his container of scrumpy, determined to soaking him instead in resentful talk. Williamson, projecting ponderous menace in the role, is reminiscent of Michael Smiley.
Visual Flair and Music Video Vibe
There is only one important plot development, but it leads to a comically executed rampage on the woodland paths that dips close to folk horror. Filmmaker John Minton at last unleashes with his showy imagery: where he was hunkered down doing impressionistic closeups of bugs in headlights in the opening part, he now lets rip with the full lysergic grand display, accompanied by a wild organ version of Ravel’s Boléro. Game feels more like an extended promo than a complete narrative, but there’s enough strident imagery to suggest that Minton could follow Jonathan Glazer, Garth Jennings et al into successfully graduating from the UK video industry.
The film releases in British and Irish theaters from 17 November.
