Life Just Is

The lives of six twentysomething Londoners, freshly graduated, are put under the microscope for a week in this slow-moving, earnest and patience-trying low-budget drama from debut British feature director Alex Barrett. It’s as if a lesser Joanna Hogg (‘Archipelago’) was handed the keys to a dour, post-university ‘Fresh Meat’ spin-off, or if ‘This Life’ was revived by Ingmar Bergman on an off month. Barrett’s frugal, realist instincts are admirable and it’s not all bad: he lets scenes linger, adopts a monastic shooting style and does his best to get close to characters and feelings. But neither cast nor script reach the heights of easy, revealing naturalism that the film demands, and Barrett expects too much of these few days in and out of a couple of houses in east London, including a burgeoning relationship, a failing one, death, a religious crisis and more. Yet, for all it’s faults, there are signs of promise and ambition here that are not to be completely sniffed at.