Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
Lava (2001)
Director: Joe Tucker
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
A simpleton whose brother has been brain-damaged in a beating teams up with a fantasist who claims to have served in the SAS to knock off the brute who did the beating. When they get to the guy's flat, they find his girlfriend home alone, so they tie her up and wait. That, in a nutshell is the plot of Lava, written, directed and starring Joe Tucker. It was also the plot of The Last Yellow, Julian Farino's 1999 black comedy, written by Paul Tucker - Joe's brother - based on his stage play. Any resemblance is presumably genetic. Okay, there are differences. Most obviously, Lava is set during the Notting Hill Carnival, making for bags of local colour, Yardie action and a kilo of cocaine. When you get right down to it, though, the drama basically takes place in a flat, and plays out as a mordant farce of mistaken identities, bloody pratfalls and unreliable firearms. Unfortunately, it peddles a leering, lewd and crude misanthropy for cheap frills and laffs. Tucker shuffles deference, bravado and bullets to fitfully amusing effect as the boastful Smiggy. As director, he aims for gross post-Tarantino highs, and misses. One positive point: Simon Fisher-Turner deserves singling out for his innovative and accomplished 'music and noise'.Author: TCh
Cast & crew
Director: Joe Tucker
Producer: Michael Riley, Gregor Truter
Cast: Joe Tucker, James Holmes, Nicola Stapleton, Grahame Fox, Mark Leadbetter, Tameka Empson, Leslie Grantham, Tom Bell, Johann Myers full cast
Genre(s): Thrillers
Duration: 99 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
To the letter
Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.
Mind over matter
David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.
Fool's gold
Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.
We are the championed
Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."
A history of violence
Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.
True romantic
James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.
Playing in the dark
MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.
Junk bonds
Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.
What do you think?
Post your review now