just satisfying enough. Knit-ting together up the cross narrative and revealing an unexpected outcome. Be-ing so subtly done the ‘joke’ of the narrative may leave some feeling cheated of a more intelligent outcome as the films comes to a slightly premature end. It could be considered that this was perhaps done so not to leave the an impression too stale, though I cant help but feel an extra minuet would have been gold dust.

A GOOD SHOTBrings to mind a time when a funk groove could partner an arrest

“This has got to be, outright the single most”Single most…

“Stupid, Single most stupid attempt at an art heist I’ve ever actually heard of ”

Marks the first line in the first pro-duction by British

crime-comedy short direc-tor Jonathan Kavanagh. And rightly it rings true through-out the film as we watch the amateurish attempt unfold in a lightly humours and un-deniably British muck-up. One which brings to mind the old greats of crime-comedy limited to our day time telly, a time when a funk groove could partner an arrest and a police of-ficer could be judged on the greatness of his facial-hair. Stylish and cliché, it’s a breath of fresh-sentimental air. However unoriginal, the short’s neat narrative and talented young cast make for an easy to watch and enter-taining five minutes.

Story-teller The back and forth narrative is perhaps the most strik-ingly original quirk of the story as we watch a couple of sullen art-thieves; ‘Vaska’ and ‘Todd’, sit through a po-lice interview which reviews their attempt at stealing an extraordinarily over-priced art collection. Obviously a shambles from the start, we watch both this interroga-tion turned lecture and the actual event crosscut in a linear fashion, which slowly but surely reveals quite how badly the boys messed up. It’s short, simple and punchy,

running smoothly through-out without any real signifi-cant pace changes making its appeal all the more de-fault. The lack of shocking change might disappoint a harder to please viewer, but in all this, the production stays true to its genre with-out touching an element of action. For most, this is easy to overlook as likable characters are developed and introduced through-out. In this, the director shows his strength for cre-ating personalities as both the criminals and police be-come uniquely affable from the first sequences making it difficult to judge who -in this all male cast- shines as the alpha-dog.The criminals nevertheless, do stand out as the most convincing characters due to their screen-time. Joey Barra

(Todd) and Peter Hazelhurst (an English actor who plays ozzy-crim ‘Vaska’) both cre-ated a convincing rapport with each other as partners in crime. This coupled with their natural performances contributed massively to-wards a smooth running progression, which leaves you constantly absorbed. Similarly, Ronan Knight and Adam Shape (credited as Detectives Harland and Adams) contrast as binary opposites to the thieves who get on just as well. Though heavily characterised and innately performed, their implementation as narra-tive-tools is ever-present, which leaves empty space is a possibly interesting area. Making for likeable, but per-haps underexposed, disposi-tions. Though, it’s exciting to know on a budget of persua-

sive talk and favours a film can turn out so believable. Without a pound spent, di-rector Kavanagh’s involve-ment and responsibility over every aspect of the film creation come together at-tractively.

In particular, he shows a sophisti-cated technical un-derstanding of cin-ematography and editing. The cross-cutting I mentioned earlier is always shaking the boat so to keep the viewers attention grasped a hold of the story whilst thought-fully diverse and un-distracting shots fill the gaps. Perhaps what he lacks in this area, however, is the stylistic flare that can be so

significant in the essence of his paternal directors like Guy Richie.

Visually, the film does suf-fer from this economy. Costumes are just passable whist props and scenery can

often appear uncharacter-istic of the genre. Whist is does little to detour interest, this actuality that requires

the suspension of our disbe-lief is awkwardly required. The shorts cleverly written dialogue supported by the strong cast is distracting enough for us to forget this mostly.

Groovy Moves Furthermore in this recipe, 70s Funk pro-vides the icing for the cake. Reminiscent of BBC television clas-sic ‘The Sweeney’ the soundtrack which includes the likes of Brian Bennett and Jimi Hendrix enforc-es that this is a BRIT-ISH production, not only that, but it’s a

crime-comedy through and through.

The film comes to a close upon a clever twist, which is

review

19 Critical Review April 2014

Critical British Low-Budget Film Reviews

Certificate UniversalDirected by Jonathan Ka-vanaghStarring Joey Barra, Peter Ha-zelhurst, Jonathan Kavanagh, Ronan Knight and Adam SharpeClassification Short Film

Jonathan Fernandes

“It’s exciting to know on a

budget ofpersuacive talk

and favours and favours a film

can turn out so believable”

20