Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee (2009)

Thanks for the memories!

Must See Movie...

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Shane Meadows (This is England) directs this mock music documentary about Le Donk (Paddy Considine), a Nottingham based roadie working for The Arctic Monkeys and managing rapped Scor-zay-zee (playing himself). The film blends reality and fiction and is set and filmed in five days leading up to an Arctic Monkeys gig in Manchester. Le Donk has recently separated from his pregnant girlfriend (Olivia Coleman) and travels to Manchester with Scor-zay-zee for work and with the hope that he can somehow get the rapper on the bill at the gig.Paddy Considine is brilliant as Le Donk and carries the entire movie. Most of his lines are improvised and the majority work, with hilarious results. He appears to be channelling David Brent and Alan Partridge at times but is thoroughly convincing. The film itself outstays its welcome after about 45 minutes. Despite a promising start the joke kind of gets old by the mid way point and although the film comes in at only 71 minutes, it feels long. I couldn't help feeling that it was more suited to TV and perhaps would have worked better as a 45 minute or one hour special. I'm glad that I didn't see it at the cinema myself.The idea itself is interesting and well executed but it is unable to sustain an entire feature, even one as short as this (there are at least three musical montages). Unlike Spinal Tap for instance which has two very strong central characters and numerous side characters, Le Donk is pretty much here on his own. Scor-zay-zee provides the odd funny line but he is either not good enough or not used enough to provide much impact. The side story of Le Donk's pregnant ex added a few minutes to the run time but is perhaps more important for cementing the two actors relationship before they worked together on Considine's brilliant directorial debut Tyrannosaur.Overall the film is sometimes entertaining and occasionally very funny but doesn't have enough about it for a successful feature film. You have to commend everyone involved though as they've managed to make an average film in just five days with a budget of £48,000 when many studio films fall flatter than this with budgets one hundred times that.www.attheback.blogspot.com

The success of Shane Meadows' recent television series on Channel 4 will hopefully spike a revival of interest in his brilliant movies; including this one, his funniest film yet. In his youth, Meadows was in a band with Paddy Considine, whose career as an actor he later helped launch; and the two are back together here, with Meadows playing a fictionalised version of himself, a film-maker shooting a documentary about the life of a roadie (Considine) and his musical protégé, a most unlikely rapper. Considine is great, as ever, in playing the part of a social misfit utterly lacking in self-awareness: the film is full of laugh-out-load moments, yet still manages to be touching in places. I don't know if the low budget is the reason why the role of a supposedly new-born baby is played by a child who's practically a toddler, and it's scarcely a weighty piece, but it's delightful nonetheless. I continue to find Meadows' ongoing struggle for commissions amazing - to me, he's the best film-maker we have in the U.K. right now.

As you might imagine, I had great expectations of this film, indeed I have great expectations of any film starring Britain's scariest actor Paddy Considine. But this was yet another sleight outing from Shane Meadows who had the semi-eponymous Mr Considine giving a fine performance, but, mysteriously, as David Brent!Nevermind, I found his companion-in-title Scor-Zay-Zee fascinating, all the more so when I contemplate he is actually a rapper! Extra marks were on offer if Shane had turned his camera across the road at the final Arctic Monkeys gig for a quick shot of my old school.All in all, an opportunity missed!Ron(Viewed 10Oct09)

Shane Meadows has earned an incomparable amount of slack over the course of his 13 year career, and although this takes an even bigger cut than last year's well observed but insubstantial Somers Town, its an enjoyable watch.And although real life Nottingham rapper Scorzayzee gets top billing, this is basically the Paddy Considine show, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.Its dramatically underpowered and about as edgy as an episode of Last Of The Summer Wine, but its short and peppy and there are quite a few laughs in it.But no 71 minute film should really be allowed to have four heedless musical montages in it.And I'd have been monumentally p*ssed off if I'd have paid to see it in a cinema.