The Legend of Barney Thomson (2016)

Sick Product of a Sick System

Crappy film

Better Late Then Never

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

At twelve minutes and thirty two seconds I had to abandon this film secure in my new found belief that all of Scotland has something stuck in their throat.I have a serious aversion to subtitles because if I want to read, I know where books are located. So you can imagine my thoughts on a movie that is allegedly in English but still require subtitles to understand.I'm not advising that you don't give it a go. As for me, I'm getting older and am not willing to strain through this thing. The chances of it ending up sucking are just too great.It looks like it has potential, but if the good people of Scotland want to be a part of my movie going experience; They're going to have to spit out the marbles.

The titular Barney Thomson (Robert Carlyle) is a less than friendly man, he complains about many things and is generally unapproachable. One day he stumbles upon a series of hazardously unfortunate events which lead him into awkward world of crime. This is a very distinct style of comedy, which can be poignantly funny at times, but also riddled with tons of profanity and can be even resentful, thus it probably caters to more adult audience.Acting is sharply over-the-top as Barney wonders into sillier antics than the last, involving his strange mom as well as detectives hell bent on pursuing a serial killer. It's a harsh unapologetic direction for comedy, a bit similar to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, certainly not a light watch for casual or younger audience, but for mature demographic the oddities might be a treat.The cast performs with intense gusto and yelling, which is also one of the movie's quirks. Its accent is very thick, when said in fast pace it can be confusing, so subtitles would be helpful for this case. It can be jarring when the movie tries to pull off a strangely dark tone, borderline uncomfortably so. Furthermore, the actors seem truly invested on delivering all around antagonizing characters, thus there's no real heroes here.The movie could be vulgar at times, yet its crude and bloody nature might be ironically entertaining.

What starts off like it's going to head into Guy Ritchie mk1 territory, this veers sharply into the often difficult waters of black comedy. But oh it's damn good. Emma Thompson steals the show; having seen her in no less that 20 films over the years, there is no doubt that she is in her element here as a the protagonist's part mum/part xxxxxx. Both Carlyle and the ever angry 'ard Winstone also deliver powerful and hilarious performances. I have a sneaking suspicion that in a few years' time, this film will be regarded as a British cult classic. Why? With a storyline like this, there are usually dozens of cringe worthy lines that a whole host of actors fail to deliver with conviction; not here-- the tightness of the script reminds me of films like The Business, Withnail & I, Trainspotting and even Extras; the comparison with the latter two being (intentional?) inevitable. The casting of Ashley Jenson playing decidedly off character is another masterstroke. With the exception of Birdman, there hasn't been a film I want to almost immediately re-watch on DVD so soon after seeing it in the theatres because I am sure there are buried gems I've probably missed. I've seen a number of mixed reviews of this in the press but I hope it will rise above it because it's definitely one of the best British efforts of the last year.

This crime-comedy is lead actor Robert Carlyle's directorial debut. In it he plays the title character who is a late middle-aged barber living a life of humiliations who accidentally kills his boss after an argument, leading to a chain reaction of ever worsening events.Typified by distinctive on-location shooting in the east end of Glasgow, this is a pretty good effort all round. It benefits from some effective comic acting by its cast, aside from Carlyle himself the two other standouts are Ray Winstone as a cockney cop displeased to be stationed north of the border and, best of all, working under heavy make-up Emma Thompson is very convincing as Carlyle's elderly Glaswegian mother; as per usual she puts in fine work here and nails her character pretty firmly. The plot-line isn't really massively interesting to be fair and, instead, the film works as a character-driven comedy. Fortunately, the characters are, for the most part, well-drawn and the comedy is often pretty funny. Things are ultimately rounded off with a finale that is perhaps a little predictable once the basic set-up is established but for this it can be forgiven. All-in-all, while it doesn't exactly break the mould, this film is still a pretty solid bit of fun.