{"id":4537,"date":"2014-06-21T07:44:29","date_gmt":"2014-06-21T06:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/?p=4537"},"modified":"2015-05-03T21:32:16","modified_gmt":"2015-05-03T20:32:16","slug":"greyhawk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2014\/06\/21\/greyhawk\/","title":{"rendered":"Greyhawk"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Greyhawk\"<\/a>
Greyhawk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\nFormat:<\/B> DVD

\nRelease date:<\/B> 25 May 2015

\nDistributor:<\/B> Metrodome

\nDirector:<\/B> Guy Pitt

\nWriter:<\/B> Matt Pitt

\nCast:<\/B> Alec Newman, Zoë Telford, Jack Shepherd

\nUK 2013

\n91 mins\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Guy Pitt\u2019s debut feature Greyhawk<\/i> takes place on a London housing estate. Mal, a blind ex-soldier (the excellent Scottish actor Alec Newman), is playing fetch with his guide dog. On the third throw of the squeaky ball, his dog does not return. An escalating moment of anxiety (\u2018Anxiety has no upper limit.\u2019 \u2013 Roman Polanski). The dog has been stolen. And so the determined man, who\u2019s carrying quite a bit of barely pent-up anger anyway, must venture into the scheme to get his companion back.<\/p>\n

The filmmaking is assured, using the frame, and the focus, to give a stylised sense of the limitations of its hero\u2019s perceptions, and there\u2019s some arresting architectural framing, positioning the central location as antagonist. Greyhawk<\/i> is at its best using the tense dramatic premise, which you can\u2019t help invest in emotionally, as a means of exploring character. As a study of anomie it\u2019s not entirely convincing: it feels less intimately familiar with its story world than something like Attack the Block<\/i>, even though its intentions are more serious. Some people might even be offended by the suggestion that so many people on one housing estate would be so unsympathetic to a disabled person\u2019s plight. But the combination of an interesting, defiantly un-ingratiating central figure, strong support from Zoë Telford and Jack Shepherd, and a nerve-racking situation, make the movie a compelling experience. \u2013 The detective story aspect of Mal\u2019s investigation is cleverly scripted, just barely avoiding too neat a feeling of contrivance, while continually throwing difficulties in his path. <\/p>\n

Greyhawk<\/i> is one of several imaginative British features screening at EIFF (including opening film Hyena<\/i><\/a>), offering encouraging signs of life and the possibility that this year\u2019s Michael Powell Award for best British film might conceivably go to something Powell would have recognised as cinema.<\/p>\n

This review is part of our 2014 EIFF coverage<\/a><\/A>.<\/div>\n

David Cairns<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n

Watch the trailer:<\/i><\/p>\n