Kerblam! by Christopher

Friday, December 15
Sugarhouse Lane - a quality indie film with Asher D in it!

The title of this article is no joke! Sugarhouse Lane is truly a good piece of cinema. Let me elaborate...

So, I've just had the chance to watch a preview version of a forthcoming indie film called Sugarhouse Lane, based on a screenplay by writer Dominic Leyton - which itself evolved from his original idea of a stage play, back in 2001. For a much more detailed background to the film, and some insight into the screenwriter and the film's production, see their site's Background, Crew and Production Notes pages. The cast is a mixture of well-known and lesser-known actors, but they all put in great performances. There's a full list on the Sugarhouse Lane iMDB page, but here are the main characters:

Andy Serkis plays the 'villain' of the story, a menacing Irish gangster by the name of Hoodwink, Ashley Walters (Asher D) as a half-crazy, desperate crackhead called 'D' and Steven Mackintosh as Tom/Horatio, an edgy accountant who makes an unlikely rendezvous with D to try and obtain something which costs a LOT of money... I won't give any more of the story away, but it's not as clear cut as you may think.

To clarify a little, the Tom/Horatio character calls himself Tom in the story, but his real name is actually Horatio according to one part of his dialogue; "would you go around calling yourself Horatio?"

Anyway, I got the chance to watch a preview of the film after submitting my details via a mailshot from the Pyro Radio online radio station, and watched the film via the (passworded) LoveFilm web site. I filled out a questionnaire after watching, and hopefully my comments and feedback will help shape the final version of what is already looking to be one of the most promising indie offerings to come out of the UK for the past few years.

The film is also benefitting not only from the quality ensemble of cast, great scriptwriting and production values, but several members of the Casino Royale stunt team (yes, the Daniel-Craig-007-franchise-reboot-Casino-Royale) also lent their skills and insight to the production. This came about due to Ben Dixon (a member of the SHL crew) having some conversations with the Casino Royale stunt team, and as the stunt crew members had enough free time inbetween their larger projects to help out, they came to the project and offered their services. You can see a short video interview with some of the stunt crew on the Sugarhouse Lane site.

This film is a great film! Yeah, it has Asher D in (the bloke who was in the garage group So Solid Crew back at the turn of the century, got nicked for gun-related offences, reformed, quit the group before it split up and is now pursuing what looks like a successful acting career). I was a little put off by it initially given the fact that, bar a few unusual (and pleasant) surprises, musicians trying to cross into acting usually make a right pig's ear of it, and look stupid in the process. That said, Asher D's portrayal of his character was one of those pleasant surprises - his portrayal of the character 'D' was remarkably well-acted and very convincing. Maybe the fact I never followed him that much through his music career helped, but I forgot who he was and began to just perceive him as that character, not as an actor playing a character... Something which to me is the sign of a convincing performance.

Serkis is, as always, brilliant - I'm glad he had time to spend contributing to this film, he puts in an amazing performance, violent, gritty, slightly (well, very) deranged... You never even think, 'this is the bloke who played Gollum!', because he manages to really fill the boots of the character, he makes it his own and plays it with all his heart. I think he quite enjoyed playing the character, he really puts a huge dollop of menace and a real evil streak into it, and it's almost delicious to watch.

As for Steven Mackintosh... Well, The Guardian's Film site really sums it up for me: "Steven Mackintosh has one of those faces which you recognise but can't place." His portrayal of the Tom/Horatio character left me guessing right up until the 'revelation' scene, where you begin to truly understand his character's situation, he brings some real pathos to the performance and at the same time manages to change your perception of the 'D' character (who to me was alllllmost a foregone conclusion until the two characters begin to relate to each other two-thirds of the way through, so fool I am for making a premature assumption!) This is one of the key themes of the film:

The accident of birth is highlighted by Oliver Milburn and Ben Dixon as being a main theme of SUGARHOUSE LANE. The harsh truth being that the incredibly rich can live within metres of people who, like D, have nothing. “It is vary rare for these people to meet, let alone talk, but when they do, as in SUGARHOUSE LANE, they can have a surprising amount in common.”

From the Sugarhouse Lane Production Notes

Really, if you have some time to kill and you fancy watching a quality bit of original, British-made drama, check out Sugarhouse Lane. If just watching a preview of the film motivated me enough to write this big blog entry about it, it must be at least fairly good! Because I'm the laziest person around ;) The film comes out in cinemas around March 2007, but if you sign up as a member on the SHL site there's a chance to receive an invite to an exclusive screening of the film (most likely the way I watched it - via the LoveFilm site, where you get sent a username and password to access the film as a (very!) high-quality stream online.

Dragged out of Christopher's memory and pasted
into his blog at 12/15/2006 05:51:00 PM. Roughly.
Blog ID: 116620708574488380· | Permalink