UK Premier

Best Feature > Winner! - FantasticFest (Austin, Texas)

Short Synopsis:

A darkly comic and deeply disturbing slice of social surrealism featuring the cream of British comedy character actors. The new wave of kitchen sink.

Review:

Bill and Karl are fresh out of jail for an unspecified crime but they’re no less obsessed with figuring out who snitched on them in the first place. Meanwhile Karl’s partner seems like your average housewife but there’s something about her that suggests she may have had a hand in it. It soon becomes evident that this ordinary terraced house is packed to the rafters with gangsters. Amongst others, we meet despised family ‘friend’ Garvey (Tony Way) alongside Pringle (Michael Smiley), a hit man who takes his toddler along on jobs, in addition to Karl’s pregnant girlfriend (Kali Peacock) and a nasty piece of work named Eric (David Schaal). Paranoia reigns supreme in this house, where everyone is suspicious of everyone else.
 
Down Terrace marks the directorial debut of Ben Wheatley who started out as a short filmmaker and animator and who is best known here as a TV comedy writer on shows like The Time Trumpet.
 
In Down Terrace he expertly juggles a cast comprised of both professionals (some of whom are well know from TV shows such The Office and Spaced) and non actors alike to achieve a naturalistic slice of life that has more than a hint of Ken Loach flavour. Combine that with the crime shenanigans of the household which suggest a British Sopranos and you have a uniquely hilarious romp through gangland crime.

 

SB