Helmed by Bristol sound co-founder Geoff Barrow, this scabrous if slight first film casts a critical gaze on 90s rave culture. Self-serving pillhead 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 upside down in the wreckage of his car in a forest – and subject to the angry eye of the Woodsman (vocalist Jason Williamson). Declining to free David, with no time for townies, he is a fractured society personified: “You’re one of those noisy cunts from up on the heath.”
A Shaky Start and Darkly Funny Duel
Game gets off to a shaky start, spending too long on meticulously detailing David’s attempt to free himself from his safety harness, while clumsily segueing into flashbacks of his everyday life. The bigger point – that the rave-era youth were mainly focused on themselves – is clearly conveyed. But these vignettes are too thin to properly prime us for what to expect when the Woodsman arrives, enraged after David kills his dog. Still, a grimly amusing standoff takes hold – David eager to get away; the Woodsman withholding his jerrycan of scrumpy, determined to dousing him instead in resentful talk. Williamson, projecting ponderous menace in the role, is reminiscent of Michael Smiley.
Stylish Imagery and Promo-Inspired Sensibility
There is only one key story turn, but it leads to a comically executed rampage on the forest trails that veers toward rural terror. Director 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 and others into successfully graduating from the Brit music promo scene.
Game is in UK and Irish theaters from 17 November.
