2011: Wild Bill (14th)

What else happened this year? On a personal level, I finished university and started work. in Edinburgh. Some of those events can still be found on this page. There was a new government in the UK who haven't been out of power since, oh, those riots happened in London too! What a year for the UK! (I moved back overseas shortly after).

What is the plot - in one sentence? In London, ex-con 'Wild' Bill gets out of prison and seeks to reconnect with his kids.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? His kids have been looking after themselves for months, Bill tries to look after them but is threatened and tempted by his old, druggie pals. Bill beats the gang who'd been threatening his younger son, which leads to him being arrested and dragged away, crying and happy at the same time. 

What is the meaning of the title? His name is Bill, he's Wild. No great poetry there. 

Yet another movie poster that would have meant I wouldn't have bothered watching the movie if I'd seen it first, [source].

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? Yep. Bill ends up in a relationship with a prostitute moll of the drug gang. She's led into his arms after she gets punched by one of them. As for not aged well, let's just say Will Poulter.

Any thoughts? So this is set in London just before the Olympics there. The older kid is working on a building or stadium that will be used for it. The older kid, who'd been caring for his brother, is Will Poulter, who as a kid is even creepier looking than he is in adulthood. He ends up having sex with a young mum, and that was something I didn't need to see, or think about. Actually, what happened to that kid of the girl? Will Poulter and that girl seem to be in a relationship at the end - Is he now a step-dad at 15? Let's say yes.

Also, they should have moved to Scotland instead of larking around in London. It would have been a fresh start and there aren't any drug problems in Scotland.*

This is one of those grim movies where they're impoverished and there's no way out, but they're hit with a weird form of poverty. By the beginning they eat toast for all meals, then Bill returns and they can afford beers and Chinese takeaways, despite Bill working for £2.90 an hour. Come on.

Would you recommend this? I'd just watched 'The Long Good Friday' and someone mentioned that the kid who 'protects' Bob Hoskins' car in one scene is a director. It turns out he directed this movie. The Long Good Friday ends *spoiler* with Bob Hoskins in the back of a car, in close-up running the gamut of emotions from rage to resignation, as he realises his business and probably life are over. This movie ends with Bill, in the back of a police car, in close-up, running a gamut of emotions from anger to joy at his situation. Did he think we wouldn't notice? This was ok, pretty grim, a little tense, and even tinged with a bit of humour. Yeah, enjoyable in a way, but that's it for bleak English drug movies for now.Also, the annoying gangster guy who talks in ghetto style needed all kinds of slapping, any movie with someone like that in it deserves a star rating removed.

Final thoughts? I'm pretty sure that if you fight a bunch of guys in a pub, and one of them has a gun, you'll be able to plead self-defence pretty easily. I'd also like to see it as a sequel, set now, where the joy of austerity has hit, and Will Poulter is the father of several.

The full list of movies I've made myself watch and talk about can be found here.

 

*Hehh!