Nightride

An excellent low-key thriller carried with aplomb by the stellar performance of Moe Dunford.

One last night of hustling, one last night of pulling the strings, being the puppet-master, bossing the deal... And just like in love or war, no matter how hard you try, nothing goes right for our protaganist Budge. He's a major player in the Belfast coke scene, 50 kg's of the finest nose candy that he's got to shift before midnight, just him, his car, his mobile, his contacts and his wits.

It's been done before, driving through the night, man with a deadline: vis-à-vis Locke. But this time the stakes are much, much higher. Budge wants to get out, to go straight, start a garage business with his partner Graham - just one last deal to do, to fund it. Can he pull it off? Not if he get's on the wrong side of the man he's just borrowed £100k from to buy the drugs, the enigmatic and precisely enunciated Joe, just a voice on the phone played superbly menacingly by Stephen Rea. Joe's enforcer Troy, played by Gerard Jordan, is a man with scant regard to the concept of invading personal space...

So the night rolls on and Budge deals with the hand of fate played out to him by circumstances always beyond his control. And just like his partner, you can get strangely aroused by watching it all unfold... It's a one-shot white knuckle drive to an appointment with destiny.

If you liked THE GUILTY (Den skyldige, 2018), LOCKE (2013), WHEELMAN (2017), you will like this. There is anxiety and tension, it is thrilling enough to keep your interest and to make you invest, and finally, the actors are doing a good job. 5.7/10 is an unfair rating, i don't understand the low ratings, this is a fine little flick if you know what to expect and if you can use your imagination.

With 90 minute play time, it hardly has a dull moment considering there are no CGI or fancy stunts.

Do not pay attention to the rating. The acting is great. The characters (not many of them) are interesting and story is simple, to the point.

Worth a watch.

Except for some very shakycam beginnings to near nausea (later it was obvious there was no elbowroom for a steadycam), the long continuous shot was impressive, settled down in the car, and only got better. The plot kept engaging my suspension of disbelief. As an early developer of low light photography, this film blew me away with its ability to create an hour and a half continuous and seamless night shoot with no lighting glitches. The occasional lens flare and defocus bokeh is pure art, at points creating a halo around our heroine, almost reflecting his moral character. Kudos to all Ukrainians at this key moment in history! You are fighting the good fight, even as previously reflected in this surprisingly great film. I'll have to watch it again to see if there was any editing (maybe the home invasion window pan scene? ;)

Despite a lot of the negative reviews here, this film is a solid watch. Single take, in the same vein as Locke - namely all action circling around the main protagonist with a few stop offs and on screen dialogues most of the film is set inside his car via a series of phone calls. A bit of a marmite film I guess. Sometimes veering into and depending on convenient plot armour, the film pulls off what is a difficult premise with the single camera take. Really enjoyed it, worth a go if you're looking for something a bit different.