Better Things

Time Out says
The ironies are always cruel and never comic in British writer-director Duane Hopkins’s striking debut, an austere, though empathetic, insightful and technically crisp slice of social realism. Intertwining a series of dead-end vignettes comprising teenage chemical dependents, a bickering elderly couple and a woman on her deathbed, Hopkins cannily juxtaposes the squandered promise of youth with the vulnerability of old age.
As a director, he certainly has a knack for camera movement and framing, often locating a gaunt poetry at the heart of the squalor while blanketing the drama in a woozy, quiet-loud-quiet sound design. There are some rough edges, most notably a total rejection of the potential for happiness which is relayed in the shady green and blue photography and the artificially lifeless intonation of dialogue, but there is more than enough here to be excited about. And while it reminds of Lynne Ramsay, Bruno Dumont and Harmony Korine’s ‘Gummo’, it also retains a tang of its own.
As a director, he certainly has a knack for camera movement and framing, often locating a gaunt poetry at the heart of the squalor while blanketing the drama in a woozy, quiet-loud-quiet sound design. There are some rough edges, most notably a total rejection of the potential for happiness which is relayed in the shady green and blue photography and the artificially lifeless intonation of dialogue, but there is more than enough here to be excited about. And while it reminds of Lynne Ramsay, Bruno Dumont and Harmony Korine’s ‘Gummo’, it also retains a tang of its own.
Details
Release details
Rated:
15
Release date:
Friday January 23 2009
Duration:
93 mins
Cast and crew
Director:
Duane Hopkins
Screenwriter:
Duane Hopkins
Cast:
Liam McIlfatrick
Che Cor
Megan Palmer
Che Cor
Megan Palmer