(rated R, 99 mins.)
Written and directed by 25-year old newcomer, Justin Kerrigan, the story tells of a group of friends whose sole release is pills, booze and wall-to-wall electronic music. The action unfolds in the Welsh city of Cardiff where Jip and his cohorts get ready for some all-night clubbing, first at a young kids bar to get their cylinders clicking and then leading patrons in an alternative, Gen-X version of the National anthem. What follows is a series of set pieces culminating in a postmortem of the weekend’s activities and the expectation that in five days, it will all start again. If you are wondering why we would really care, you’re right. Kerrigan set out to give the critics exactly what they hate. A movie about non-sympathetic punks in a lack of a plot with much drug induced dialog in a similar vein to “Trainspotting.” There are no clear solutions aside from drinking, smoking pot, popping pills and party hopping. We spend over an hour and a half supposedly worrying about Jip (John Simm) who can’t control his “Mr. Floppy.” Lulu (Lorraine Pilkington) who can’t deal with her string of cheating boyfriends, Koop (Shaun Parkes) who can’t stop imagining his faithful girlfriend Nina shagging other men and Moff (Danny Dyer) who keeps himself in a haze to avoid seeing the black hole where his life should be. Thank God for the term ‘straight to video’.
