“Beats”, Brian Welsh’s adaptation of Kieran Hurley’s 2012 stage play, proved an ideal ending of the Glasgow Film Festival. Playing between danger and responsibility, Welsh has crafted a beautiful tribute to the Scottish rave scene, and a profound socio-political commentary on the end of the twentieth century.
Two 15-year-old boys living in council-estates of a West Lothian town in 1994. Johnno (Cristian Ortega), a bright and naive teenager, lives with his mother and housewife Alison (Laura Fraser), and stepdad Robert (Brian Ferguson), a disciplinarian cop. Spanner (Lorn Macdonald), Johnno’s best friend, a fiery “scum” with a “crime-against-his-head” hair cut as described by Johnno’s family, experiences a different reality, sharing a house with his abusive older brother Fido (Neil Leiper). Jonno seems to permanently exist in between his passionate, rebellious teenage self who is being dragged to rave parties and illegal gatherings by Spanner, and a disciplined adult-to-be self who is trying very hard to conform to social conventions. Ortega, with great success, sprinkles his character Johnno with awkwardness, confusion, determination, clarity and with layers of complexity. The Tory government has just passed the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill, a key legislation for banning music events “wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats” which pushes large groups of rebellious youngsters to illegal gatherings, radio stations and parties in remote warehouses. Johnno and Spanner’s mundane lives are just about to take separate paths when Johnno’s family have decided to move to a new, better for them home. To celebrate their last night as a “dream team”, Johnno and Spanner follow a group of older, cooler kids to a large scale rave party, exchange their black and white mundane lives for a night of ecstasy, music, sweat and new experiences.
A black and white, simple development of the plot leads to this intense, full of colour and explosion party in a warehouse, a powerful, for me, comment on the chasm between a uniformed, constricted political reality, and the young people’s passionate and colourful aspirations for their future. With strobe, fast pace, hallucinatory visuals from Weirdcore (Aphex Twin’s visual artist), and music directing by JD Twitch (of Glasgow’s DJ duo “Optimo”), the party scene transgresses the mundane everyday and creates the sense of a freer, simpler, looser reality. Focusing on the platonic love and intricate friendship between the two 15 year-old boys, Welsh creates an intriguing representation of the era’s raging undercurrent and absurdity. A wonderful pot of contrasts, “Beasts” is bouncing between abandon and guilt, humour and darkness, suppression and freedom, a family safety and a constant, hidden danger. An accessible-to-all Scottish gem to mark the end of the 15th anniversary of the Glasgow Film Festival.
Reviewer - Zoe Katsilerou
on - 3/2/19
No comments:
Post a Comment