Bypass (U.)
Directed by Duane Hopkins.
Starring George MacKay, Benjamin Dilloway, Charlotte Spencer and Donald Sumpter. 107 mins
“There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families.” Now that's a political statement. In Bypass, a British film that has a burning desire to be a political statement, there isn't much in the way of society either. This is partly because its main character is a young man, Tim (MacKay), with no parents and no job who fences stolen goods to survive, tries to support his school truant sister and avoid the attention of the bailiffs. It's also because director Hopkins shoots almost the entire film in close ups. The intense focus on people's faces means that most of the rest of the world is just a shiny, impressionistic blur.
n the traditional terms of British social realist kitchen sink drama, you get a clear look at the sink but only a hazy understanding of the kitchen surroundings. The title is enigmatic but could refer to the various aspects that they choose not to clarify: what exactly it is that Tim does, what the problem is that besets his criminal activities or what the disease is that causes him to have headaches, rashes and vomit. These are all valid artistic choices, but alienating ones to a wider audiences. The aim is to show that government policies are creating an atmosphere of hopelessness in poor working class areas, one that leads to basically decent kids like Tim turning to crime. The style though means that the film is on a one way ticket to the palookaville of middle class arthouse cinema audiences, and probably not that many of them either.
Hopkins' 2009 debut Better Things was a bleak mosaic of life in a west midlands town. For me it seemed to be advancing the traditions of British social realist cinema into some bold new directions thought it might represent the emergence of a major new talent. Nobody else did. They though it was just another miserable English film and dismissed him as a Bruno Dumont copyist (a charge that this latest film clearly disproves.) The film making in Bypass is top quality but overall, and for the moment, the emergence of a major British talent seems some way off.
Bypass (U.)
Directed by Duane Hopkins.
Starring George MacKay, Benjamin Dilloway, Charlotte Spencer and Donald Sumpter. 107 mins
“There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families.” Now that's a political statement. In Bypass, a British film that has a burning desire to be a political statement, there isn't much in the way of society either. This is partly because its main character is a young man, Tim (MacKay), with no parents and no job who fences stolen goods to survive, tries to support his school truant sister and avoid the attention of the bailiffs. It's also because director Hopkins shoots almost the entire film in close ups. The intense focus on people's faces means that most of the rest of the world is just a shiny, impressionistic blur.
n the traditional terms of British social realist kitchen sink drama, you get a clear look at the sink but only a hazy understanding of the kitchen surroundings. The title is enigmatic but could refer to the various aspects that they choose not to clarify: what exactly it is that Tim does, what the problem is that besets his criminal activities or what the disease is that causes him to have headaches, rashes and vomit. These are all valid artistic choices, but alienating ones to a wider audiences. The aim is to show that government policies are creating an atmosphere of hopelessness in poor working class areas, one that leads to basically decent kids like Tim turning to crime. The style though means that the film is on a one way ticket to the palookaville of middle class arthouse cinema audiences, and probably not that many of them either.
Hopkins' 2009 debut Better Things was a bleak mosaic of life in a west midlands town. For me it seemed to be advancing the traditions of British social realist cinema into some bold new directions thought it might represent the emergence of a major new talent. Nobody else did. They though it was just another miserable English film and dismissed him as a Bruno Dumont copyist (a charge that this latest film clearly disproves.) The film making in Bypass is top quality but overall, and for the moment, the emergence of a major British talent seems some way off.
