New: Wild Bill

Wild Bill (2011)

Director: Dexter Fletcher
Writers: Dexter Fletcher, Danny King
Stars: Charlie Creed-Miles, Will Poulter and Liz White

Buried beneath the heavy concrete terrain of an east London skyline, itself swallowed up by the sprawling almost monstrous constructs of the imminent summer Olympiad, dwell the complex myriad of indigenous life which we peer into rookie director Dexter Fletcher’s Shameless meets Eastenders Goldfish bowl , where the natives hide under the veneer of hooded tracksuits, baseball caps, West Ham United glyphs and shabby council properties. Fletcher’s choice of aesthetic layers creates an effective personal space for his characters to bare all in what is quintessentially a snapshot of the contemporary urban British underclasses.

Fletcher embraces a plethora of themes which at times is problematic but also typical and honest traits of most directorial debuts, usually incumbent of the personal near self-biographical nature of  maiden projects as well as the developing maturation of artistry and artistic discipline. There are shades of Fletcher’s career history bursting onto screen throughout, there is the “guns and geezers” pastiche of the likes of Lock Stock and Layercake, pre and post-adolescent inflections no doubt drawn in some form from a past in children’s TV. All of which manifest in a diversity and fluctuation of the tone and pace which encompasses comedic and dramatic flair with good measure.

The strengths of the piece are undoubtedly the earnest endeavours of the script, telling a most simplistic yet salient story of our times, whilst the ensemble cast produce a stream of coherent performances to both authenticate and entertain. When an ironically mild Bill (Charlie Creed-Miles) returns from an eight year stretch, he looks to instantly remedy the ills created by his incarceration by searching for his two sons, what he finds at the end of this process is that with sustained hiatus comes restrained welcome making re-assimilation all the more trickier. The biggest slice of resentment comes from the star of the show Will Poulter who in playing the eldest son Dean manages a performance that mirrors the plight of his character, a 15 year old who is forced to be a man though he is yet a boy assuming patriarchal control of his younger brother Jimmy and himself. Poulter’s projection is a frowning determination delivering tough talk and home truths to “Bill”, calling and in the same sense mocking him as just that and refusing to use the expected but as yet unearned epithet. 

The narrative plays out key inversions, the closer Bill gets to parental reconciliation, the more caustic his relationship with the local drug dealers of his own nefarious past become. Whilst the more Dean and his troublesome sibling let their guard down, invoking their estranged fathers care that is alien to them, the more vulnerable they become. In the end Fletcher strikes gold by exploring socially corrosive subjects of absent fathers,  drugs and violence against women with no shortage of charm, wit and heart warming humanity.

By no means perfect (few are at this stage)  but a great way to get off the mark as a director.

7.5/10


My Top 5 Directorial Debuts



5. Catherine Hardwicke - Thirteen (2003)

Hardwicke's debut is extremely raw, ill-disciplined and rough around the edges yet somehow she pulls off a terrify look at teen lawlessness that will make you want to lock up your teenage daughters safely.



4. Sofia Coppola - The Virgin Suicides (1999)

Stepping into daddy's (Francis Ford) vocation and enormous shadow, Sofia Coppola does the family name proud with this tale of rebellion and constraint of five sisters in suburban 70's Detroit.

3. Xavier Dolan - I Killed My Mother (2009) 

French Canadian cinema it could be said gets the best of both worlds, with the bluster of North America and the guile of Gallic nuance. Dolan dexterously captures just that in this visual absorbing self portrait of his schooling, parenting and handling of his own sexuality. 

2.Niels Mueller - The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004)

It is somewhat surprising that a relative unknown was able to capture so hauntingly and tragically the true essence of one mans alienating disenfranchisement with the American Dream. Sean Penn is a huge contributor adding this to his pantheon of grandiose performances, but the guidance of Mueller is real achievement here.

1.Terrence Malick - Badlands (1973)

Malick's debut is a wonderfully convoluted cocktail of juxtaposing genre and theme, murderous yet romantic, vast yet personal, committed yet doubting. All in the name of conceited young love between Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek whose naive impulses amount to a blood soaked road trip, traversing the baron nothingness of the eponymous dusty plains.