WASTELAND screening : 2013 Montclair Film Festival
May 1st, 2013 by Mr. C
Director: Rowan Athale
Stars: Luke Treadaway,Timothy Spall,Iwan Rheon,Matthew Lewis,Neil Maskell
Genre: Suspense, thriller, heist
On my initial artificial inspection of Wasteland and opening sequences of the film, my reaction was that this movie was going to be a very grimy, seedy, & dark film. In retrospect, that view shattered my preconceived notions. Actually, the setting seemed to be in a grimy and seedy locale but the movie never stepped into the depths of darkness as much as I wanted it to. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it on some level even with the few predictable story lines. The audience at the Montclair Film Festival reacted with a few chuckles and some grunts during the screening which is a positive sign for engaging the viewer. This stylish British heist caper film starts us off with the main cheeky protagonist Harvey (Luke Treadaway) in a bruised and battered state being interrogated at the Police Station by Detective West (Timothy Spall) on the charge of stolen money from a local social club. This is when Harvey flashes back to his story of being recently released from jail, framed by a local brute force drug dealer and “security” specialist in Steven Roper (Neil Maskell). Mind you Harvey is no innocent cat either with his local small time dealings with the white stuff. With inflamed revenge on his mind, Harvey recruits his other hipster buddies to join him on the heist escapade in hopes to one, get back at Roper and two, to steal money.
The interactions and dialogue of these young british gunners reminded me so much of the band of lost misfits known as the cutters in the movie “Breaking Away”. These two movies have no similarities whatsoever but the camaraderie of both of these groups with parallel struggles of day to day life reminded me of the dynamics in their brotherhood no matter what the circumstance.
As the stage was being set in Wasteland – flashes of other well known heist films began to scroll through my mind as flashbacks to the crime scene and the master plan w/ alternate stories would clue us in on the plot. The robbery is quite hokey and complicated as the story starts to unfold. Our lead character in my opinion is a bit laid back and aloof while the supporting actors including the bruiser antagonist – Roper does a good job in their roles to make their characters somewhat believable. The end result is a lightweight heist with a convoluted plot. The twists and turns of the story reveal themselves when Harvey is trying to mislead the Detective during interrogation. The movie begins at a slow pace until our main character add layers to the story for embellishment and trickery for the interrogator. In the meantime, the director seems to take the time in showing us the nuts/bolts of the relationship with this antagonist crew and their take on their dead end/mundane lifestyle of living which is very similiar to the ‘Cutter’ crew in “Breaking Away”. I would guess their take on this hopeless way of living is a reference to the title of the movie.
The film is artistically shot and pleasing to the eye without the overuse of technology. In the end, I welcomed the film in for the fresh outlook and interpretation from the young cast with a gritty appeal of a U.K. that is not doused with royalty. I just wished the story would of went to a darker shade of Waste. The Heist story plot was all too familiar and needed some serious overhauling. I would say for a directorial debut, Wasteland was a success!
For other screenings at the 2nd Annual Montclair Film Festival, checkout their schedule!
Tags: british film, heist, mff2013, montclair film festival
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