Tag Archives: Paul Laight classics

Cinema, Classic Movie Scenes

CLASSIC MOVIE SCENES #8 – DEAD MAN’S SHOES (2004) – RICHARD MEETS SONNY

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CLASSIC MOVIE SCENES #8 – DEAD MAN’S SHOES (2004) – RICHARD MEETS SONNY

Directed by: Shane Meadows

Produced by: Mark Herbert, Louise Meadows

Written by: Paddy Considine, Paul Fraser, Shane Meadows

Cast: Paddy Considine, Toby Kebbell, Gary Stretch, Stuart Wolfenden etc.

Cinematography: Danny Cohen

**MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS**

Shane Meadows’ Dead Man’s Shoes (2004) is both a revenge thriller and a metaphor for the lost youth of England. Specifically, the youth of the Midlands discarded and forgotten by society.

Paddy Considine gives an incredible performance full of intensity, guilt, pathos, pain, self-loathing and regret. He portrays, Richard, a returning soldier, out to get back at those that hurt his brother, Anthony (Toby Kebbell). The film asks: can revenge absolve guilt? Alas, there is no easy answer.

The film was shot in three weeks on a shoestring budget. Among many, many brilliant and disturbing scenes is the one where Richard initially meets main gang-leader, Sonny (Gary Stretch). It’s a short but impactful scene full of menace and suspense. Richard makes it plain he is coming for Sonny and his motley crew of low level criminals. Apparently a larger scale confrontation was scripted, but due to budget constraints this scene replaced it; proving that more often than not less is definitely more.

Cinema, Under-Rated Classics

UNDER-RATED CLASSICS #4 – TRIANGLE (2009)

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UNDER-RATED FILM CLASSICS #4 – TRIANGLE (2009)

Written and directed by: Christopher Smith

Produced by: Jason Newmark, Julie Baines, Chris Brown

Starring: Melissa George, Michael Dorman, Rachael Carpani, Henry Nixon, Emma Lung, Liam Hemsworth

Music by: Christian Henson

Cinematography: Robert Humphreys

**MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS**

I started this series a while ago and posted a few times on the subject with multiple entries; however, I have now decided to make it a feature, like ‘Classic Movie Scenes’, that concentrates on singular films. My rules are simple. An under-rated classic can be a film I love, plus not be one of the following:

  • Must not have won an Oscar.
  • Must not have won a BAFTA.
  • Must not appear in the AFI Top 100 list.
  • Must not appear in the IMDB Top 250 list.
  • Must not appear in the BFI 100 Great British films.
  • Must not appear in the all-time highest grossing movies of list.

So, here’s a film, called Triangle (2009) which I recently caught again on the Horror Channel and given the critical acclaim many films get, I just cannot work out why this isn’t considered more of a classic.

This is an absolute cracker of a Sisyphean-time-loop-paradox-movie. Melissa George portrays a single mother hoping to escape her stress with a yacht trip with wealthier friends. However, things don’t go according to plan as a massive storm knocks the group way off course.

Without giving anything away this film then went into a loopy and gripping direction with an exceptionally clever criss-cross narrative. The plot is both ingenious and creepy as violent events and startling deaths begin to mount up. Melissa George carries the film incredibly well with a performance which crackles with pathos and fear. Lastly, director/writer Christopher Smith’s work should have heralded more illustrious and bigger budget films based on this incredible existential horror classic.