Terry

The actor’s showreel is dead: now all any jobbing thesp needs to get noticed is a digital camera, a bunch of willing mates and a few spare weekends. A self-conscious riff on the ‘Man Bites Dog’-style underworld mock-doc, ‘Terry’ plays like a labour of love for writer-director-star Nick Nevern, and it won’t do anything to harm the CV of this bit-part TV actor. He plays the title role of a small-time drug dealer, wide boy and borderline sociopath whose day-to-day routine of pick-ups, punch-ups and parties is being documented by film student Charlie Ruez (Manuel Atkinson) for his end-of-year project. Terry quickly goes off the rails, dragging Charlie into his life of cheap sex, hard drugs and sudden violence. There’s nothing here we’ve not seen before, and Nevern’s conclusions tend to be obvious and trite. But there’s no ignoring the sheer, visceral force of his performance, or the bleak, grimly believable world the film creates. Nasty, sure, but oddly compelling.