You Instead

The idea of shooting an off-the-cuff, ‘Before Sunrise’-style romcom live on the grounds of a music festival is a strong one, and ‘You Instead’ captures the sights, sounds and almost the smells of last year’s rainswept T in the Park. Sadly, every other aspect of David Mackenzie’s movie – an overfamiliar love story between two mismatched musicians handcuffed together for no good reason – is unconvincing. It’s largely down to a dull, self-satisfied script, which ditches characterisation in favour of a wealth of unnecessary, unlikeable side characters and crude bed-hopping antics. This blandness seeps into every part of the movie: the performances are uninspired, the photography unexciting and the music mostly a parade of nonentities, from wacky-hatted pixie Paloma Faith to ginger-dreadlocked acoustic sasquatch Newton Faulkner. The result is occasionally amusing but too often aggravating: pretty people in ugly places listening to crap pop and looking pleased with themselves.