One of my favorite films of this century so far is Kill List, a brutal and still fresh take on folk horror.  That was director Ben Wheatley’s second feature.  His debut was 2009’s Down Terrace, and it is a different film in a great many ways.

The most significant difference is this is in another genre.  This gangster film takes places almost entirely in an unassuming house in Brighton.  It is easy to see the influence of The Sopranos on this, even if I was never a fan of the show.  I suspect the films of Guy Ritchie were also an inspiration, as they seem to have been for roughly half of UK film and TV productions since his heyday.  And I’m including children’s programs in the list of media influenced by those movies.

The criminal enterprise operating out of this house appears to be largely drugs, though there is also management of a club.  Patriarch Robert Hill claims he started dealing because he was a hippie who thought he could really improve the world.  I’m not sure if that was intention, but it is obvious he did a shit-ton of drugs when he was a young man.  His son rolls he eyes as he goes on a rant he’s likely delivered many times before, about his experience with LSD, where a curl spiraled out of the top of his head, becoming a pyramid and making him realize he is God.

Interesting the British prison system put God away for a bit.  He has just been released, where he had been locked up with his son, played by his real-life descendant Robin Hill.  These two are forever at each other’s throats, and I hope they have a better relationship in reality. 

Also in the house is Julia Deakin as the mom.   I know her best from Spaced and Shaun of the Dead.  Her performance here reminded me a bit of Billie Whitelaw in The Krays.  She’s definitely the toughest and most cold-hearted person in the house.

Another woman in the picture is Kerry Peacock.  She and Robin had been dating for a year.  Somebody jokes she’ll find she’s knocked-up since he’s been away.  Turns out that is the case. 

Robert believes there are is a mole in the organization, somebody who sent him and Robin up the river.  There aren’t many suspects.  It seems unlikely to be Michael Smiley, who is a hitman they need to employ on occasion.  Becoming a father has not diminished his ease with committing homicide: “Went to Bosnia.  Just went there for a holiday and ended up in the war.”  Could the mole instead be Tony Way, who is so eager to please others?  That’s Deakin’s first guess as, in her words: “I don’t like him.  Never did.  He’s nice.  It’s a weakness.”  One should also consider David Schaal, whose character is so vaguely defined as to be difficult to get a read on him.

This is a very loosely-plotted film.  Much like Kill List, I suspect much of the dialogue was improvised.  Surprisingly little of that dialogue seems to concern the effort to find who ratted.  Instead, this is mostly a character study, though I’m not sure I much enjoyed the time spent with these people.  Some of the better moments are oddball, irrelevant things like father and son looking at books of baby names and the younger saying he’s leaning towards Enoch, which I assume is meant to bring to mind Enoch Powell.  Depending on whom you ask from the UK, that is a name not likely to have positive connotations.

The real star is Robin, who I thought was fantastic in The Borderlands.  His character here is often uncomfortable to watch.  He’s prone to sudden outbursts that sometimes build up to full-blown tantrums.  Still, some of those moments are played for laughs, such as the first time we see him, and he’s on the verge of a panic attack only because he can’t figure out how to take off his necktie.

Down Terrace a bit too indulgent and rambling for me to recommend it.  I don’t mind the improvisation, but there isn’t much of a framework around it.  Still, it has some interesting moments of off-beat charm.  For those who are curious, I challenge you to watch it to completion without turning on the subtitles.  That is only partly for the accents, but more so because of the typical disparity in the volume of voices and any other sounds.

Dir: Ben Wheatley

Starring Robin Hill, Robert Hill, Julia Deakin

Watched on Magnet blu-ray