Boy Meets Girl (1994)

Perfect cast and a good story

hyped garbage

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Ray Brady's "Boy Meets Girl" is a low budget, uncompromising and controversial shocker. When married-with-two-children Tim Poole sets out on yet another one-night-stand as an obscure drinking hole, he bites off more than he can chew. Finishing the evening in what appears to be the home-made dungeon of the psychotic Margot Steinberg, Poole's woes have only just started.This is a grim tale that has gained much notoriety due to its initial home video /DVD ban in the UK. This censorship has now been lifted and the DVD can now be purchased from all good retailers. As I'd read a lot about this project many moons ago and seen the documentary series "Banned in the UK", I knew how things were going to pan out which reduced the tension somewhat. Despite this, it's quite a gripping and unpleasant experience that leaves a sour taste in the mouth.I found the audio frustratingly unclear in places, annoying as this is a dialogue driven film. The more over-the-top violence is suggested rather than explicit but this works in its favour as it is not let down by cheap effects.Tim Poole is great as the victim, Tevin. However, it's Margot Steinberg and Danielle Sanderson who really leave an impact on the viewer. This movie is enough to make you think twice about going back to a stranger's house for a night of no-ties passion. Its use of female protagonists is effective and deeply chilling.6 out of 10. A lot of talking and psychological games fill out the running time but the experience is not as powerful as that of "Scrapbook". Some viewers will hate this movie as it's a slow paced affair but connoisseurs of modern horror may feel obliged to check it out.

One of the many things I love about DVD, as a medium, is the way that so many wonderful films that never got the video release they so richly deserved have being unearthed from the vaults and unleashed on the viewing public - usually a public that can't even remember them from the first time round at that.One such forgotten gem is Ray Brady's "Boy Meets Girl" (1994, UK) which although responsible for huge amounts of controversy upon its theatrical release (BBFC not liking its subject matter, for some reason!), never seems to get mentioned by many folk any more. Luckily, after being banned on video in the UK since its inception, it got a nicely put-together R2 DVD release in 2002 so now there's no excuse for having not seen this terrifying slice of thought-provoking brutality... The film begins, as the title suggests, when Boy Meets Girl in that all-too-familiar setting of a divey little bar somewhere. Girl is French, quite the 'randy little tart' it seems, so Boy thinks he's struck lucky, especially when she takes him back to her flat, plies him with wine and asks if he'd like to watch some porn with her. It's all very exciting but after a glass of wine he starts to feel a bit woozy and ... oops! Quicker than you can say "she drugged your drink, dude!", Boy wakes up to find he is in a small room with black walls, strapped into a dentist's chair. Girl is not actually French at all. She's also not particularly nice either. Bad things ensue. VERY bad things... and she wants to film it all.I'd love to tell you more, because the way I've put it probably makes it sound like one of the "Guinea Pig" films (which it's quite a far cry from!), but I also don't want to spoil the plot for you. I WILL however go as far as to say, the entire thing takes place in the black room with minimal cast members (which all lends it quite a 'theatrical' feel), so major cred points distributed all round for creating such a continuously tense and edgy atmosphere that keeps you guessing and utterly engrossed right up until the final few grotesque scenes.There are so many things in this deeply unusual film's favour that enable it to be so effective. The direction, despite an obvious shoestring budget, manages to be stylish and taut, using camera trickery and plot-contextual switching between film and video to keep things looking lively. The acting is surprisingly strong, considering the relative obscurity of the cast members. Danielle Sanderson (sadly never seen in anything else) is nothing short of unforgettable, playing her unstable character with a disarming mix of light and dark. One minute she's soothing, sensual, almost maternal and the next she's positively fearsome, spewing forth verbal bile with the maniacal savagery. It would be so easy for some of her dialogue to be delivered with a large side order of ham, but Sanderson makes her character believable through the intensity of her performance. I *really* wish she'd made other films. It's tragic to think of such an incredible talent being wasted.Of course, what REALLY makes this movie is the razor-sharp script, unpredictable and surprisingly complexed as it is. On top of its constant heartfelt assaults on the (at the time very hot) topic of violence in media, it relishes in playing with your mind and your personal politics, when it comes to morality. The lines between good and evil, right and wrong, continually shift (along with the viewer's sympathies). It's almost disorientating, the way the characterisations manipulate perceptions of what's going on and, by the time the plot reaches its ferociously visceral climax, the impact is made all the greater, because you're being made to THINK about what's going on instead of just watching it through zombified, desensitised eyes."Boy Meets Girl" is one of the more genuinely disturbing films I've seen. Obviously being creeped out by the movies is a very subjective, personal thing but, like I say, this one definitely did it for me. The closest comparisons I could make would be to place it in a similar category to "Man Bites Dog" or "Audition". Fiercely original, darkly comic at times but ultimately very harrowing indeed.Overall Rating: A no-budget 9.5 out of 10.

A cold precise anatomy of a murder. Scary as hell and a reality to many poor victims of serial murders. Being stalked, hunted tracked down and captured, the male lead Tim Pool (character Tevin?) is subjected to repeated brutal assaults both physical and psychological. He is broken down and destroyed as a person, all his secrets revealed. One of the most realistic portrayals of a fascist mind at work ever to be put on film! Watch this for a dark insight into the mind of a ruthless killer. You won't ever have a one-night stand again!

I felt obliged to watch this movie, it had such a reputation. I finally just got hold of it on DVD, released in the UK after several years of being banned on DVD/Video, uncut in cinemas. Considering it supposedly micro low budget it was considerably better than I expected. The script was superbly written (the script full script is a DVD extra, when played in a DVD Rom it can be printed)and the performances excellent. The film is very dark, probably one of the darkest films I've ever seen, on a par with Mac Naughtons Henry portrait of a serial killer. Like Henry the question is begged one would anyone want to make a film so bleak and disgusting? What was the motivation for the Director to write such a nihilistic work. Brady in his Director's commentary explains that the political context at the time in the UK was such that films that glamorized violence(when violence was perceived to be entertaining) were being passed by the censors and any films that showed realistic violence, pain, suffering etc were perceived by the censors to be dangerous and potentially damaging viewing material and were subsequently immediately banned. Brady said that his motivation for making Boy Meets Girl was to provoke and challenge the censors into a public clarification of this problem and arguing that irreparable damage was being done to the sensibilities of British audiences in that they were slowly and insidiously being desensitised to violence by watching films where the pace of the narrative never allowed the time to portray or dwell on the subsequent casual effects of violence and the repercuations to the whole community that surrounds an individual that has experienced an act of violence. Brady argued that the way films were being edited, to conform to censorship guidelines, was more likely to lead to potential dysfunctional behaviour by viewers of films with violent content. I now fully understand what the furore in the press when Boy Meets Girl was originally released. The polices of the British censors have changed in the last couple of years and the majority of their previous decisions made under there old management reversed. Brady seems to have been proved right. The board was in deed in trying to protect British viewers from corruption were in truth, doing more harm than good and in reality desentising British audiences to violence. The looby that Brady was a leading advocate of and the arguments that he was so often crucified for by conservative critics has indeed proven to be the vanguard of an essential and important movement towards social change, possibly the most important change in the viewing habits in the latter part of the last century. By understanding the problem in context one can understand why Boy Meets Girl was made. A brave and important film - to quote one reviewer. At times very hard to watch, but powerful essential viewing. Recommended.