Dan Turner's THE MAN INSIDE is the best British film of this year.
Echoing the refined film noir style of Abraham Polonsky, Jules Dassin and Edgar G Ulmer, and displaying a visual skill that Carl Theodor Dreyer and John Cassavetes would have been proud of.
Intense, dark, deadly and deeply emotive. Once viewed, London 2012 never ever looks the same.
Viewed through the eyes of Clayton Murdoch (Ashley Thomas) who is fighting his personal childhood demons, Turner's feature exposes a selection of inner city characters whose lives are devastated by illness, loss, bereavement and street violence.
We enter the world where moral dilemmas are present on every corner, and where the deepest emotional conflicts destroy young lives.
In Turner's vision of life, the industrial city is inhabited by those whom the hope had forgotten about, who battle for survival through personal traumas, family tragedy and gangland street culture.
In THE MAN INSIDE, we are not only a viewer and a witness, but an active participant in their deep personal drama.
As active participants we devour their pain, as we view their razor sharp tears in Turner's widescreen close ups.
Unlike the classic film noir protagonists, Thomas' Clayton does not succumb to a violent and untimely end.
His determination and belief in what he considers to be morally right, irrespective of expectations or demands placed upon him, preserves the life of those he loves the most. Through his love of life and decency, he incites a humiliating defeat to the violent environment around him, dispelling all prejudice attached to his family background.
Turner's feature touches on all crucial issues of modern, 21st century Britain - class, race, unemployment, multi cultural inner city environment, quest for opportunity and status, fear of and experience of failure - in a way which is subtle, yet pertinent and truly captivating.
By watching the deep personal drama of the main characters, presented in a framework of traditional film noir, we are brought to some of the most fundamental issues that every industrial society and its cities face today.
Fierce, truly captivating and unmissable.
Echoing the refined film noir style of Abraham Polonsky, Jules Dassin and Edgar G Ulmer, and displaying a visual skill that Carl Theodor Dreyer and John Cassavetes would have been proud of.
Intense, dark, deadly and deeply emotive. Once viewed, London 2012 never ever looks the same.
Viewed through the eyes of Clayton Murdoch (Ashley Thomas) who is fighting his personal childhood demons, Turner's feature exposes a selection of inner city characters whose lives are devastated by illness, loss, bereavement and street violence.
We enter the world where moral dilemmas are present on every corner, and where the deepest emotional conflicts destroy young lives.
In Turner's vision of life, the industrial city is inhabited by those whom the hope had forgotten about, who battle for survival through personal traumas, family tragedy and gangland street culture.
In THE MAN INSIDE, we are not only a viewer and a witness, but an active participant in their deep personal drama.
As active participants we devour their pain, as we view their razor sharp tears in Turner's widescreen close ups.
Unlike the classic film noir protagonists, Thomas' Clayton does not succumb to a violent and untimely end.
His determination and belief in what he considers to be morally right, irrespective of expectations or demands placed upon him, preserves the life of those he loves the most. Through his love of life and decency, he incites a humiliating defeat to the violent environment around him, dispelling all prejudice attached to his family background.
Turner's feature touches on all crucial issues of modern, 21st century Britain - class, race, unemployment, multi cultural inner city environment, quest for opportunity and status, fear of and experience of failure - in a way which is subtle, yet pertinent and truly captivating.
By watching the deep personal drama of the main characters, presented in a framework of traditional film noir, we are brought to some of the most fundamental issues that every industrial society and its cities face today.
Fierce, truly captivating and unmissable.