Set the Thames on Fire

... in which Salvidor (Max Bennett) - 'the pretty one' - and Art (Michael Winder) - 'the ugly one' - meet up and decide to raise enough money to go to Egypt. On their way, they meet a variety of extreme and brilliantly played characters. Sadie Frost, Sally Philips and Noel Fielding (now co-host of family-friendly cookery shows, here playing a foul-mouthed sex-crazed cross-dresser) are exceptional in these roles. David Hoyle plays probably the most affecting of them all, a down-on-his luck, tired old magician. His character in particular represents what 'Set the Thames on Fire' is all about - extravagant and often hilarious superficiality hiding a pure, terminal melancholy.

To say this film is merely a 'great experience' is difficult, because the heart of it is difficult to pinpoint. It has been described as a tragicomedy, and uses its low-budget as an advantage, making deliberately dream-like locations and architecture with only one foot in reality.

It is sick, seedy and tragic - so how then, is it also so genuinely funny? A skilful balancing act on behalf of director and writer Ben Charles Edwards and Al Joshua, that's how.

It reminds me in part of 1989's extraordinary 'Sante Sangre' in its absurdist setting, with characters that seem inaccessibly strange, but that are in possession of real humility once we get to know them.

My score is 8 out of 10.

Here's a spoiler-free review...

This film challenges depiction, classification and genre placement. Visual poetry tending to depress the spirit.

Sadness, endless sadness, melancholy longing; pain. Miserable, sickening, incoherent, absurd, extremely inspired nonsense. A Deliciously Dark Comedy - Needless to say, I love every damn bit of it!!!

Don't watch this if you have a limited sphere of thinking. It's important that you understand what you're in for. If you can't sit through a film that requires exertion and intuitive thinking, you're best to just stay away and prevent people from bashing a great film.

Some Movies with a comparable Surreal Mood or Atmosphere: The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz (2000) - Bunny and the Bull (2009) - Dark City (1998) - Erasehead (1977) - Bad Boy Bubby (1993) - Brazil (1985) - Skeletons (2010) - The Catechism Cataclysm (2011) - The City of the Lost Children (1995) - Tuvalu (1999) - Night Train (1999) - Naked Lunch (1991) - Voyeur (1986) - Delicatessen (1991) - Wat is it? (2005) - Rubin and Ed (1991) - Plan 10 from Outer Space (1995) - A Fantastic Fear of Everything (2012) - Turbo Kid (2015) - The Lobster (2015) - Combat Shock (1984) - The Chumscrubber (2005) - City of Ember (2008) - Street Trash (1987)

The Mighty Boosh - TV Series (2003–2007) Flowers - TV Series (2016)

Not a masterpiece by any means. But strong performances, solid acting and cinematic atmosphere accompanied with quiet sound of rain.

An Amazing First Film - I hope the makers will keep making movies like this. In addition to profitable work.

After watching this picture for the third time it's still growing on me!

From what I had seen about this movie, I was looking forward to it. It was a huge disappointment!

Just exactly how did this excuse for a movie get to be rated at 7.4/10 as of October 6, 2016? I've just watched it. It was a real struggle to endure it all. The only way that this movie is rated as highly as it is must be because of false voting by those who seek to benefit from its release.

This movie is absolutely dreadful. I'm not able to find anything positive within it that might redeem it. It really is the worst of the worst! If I could have rated this movie at zero, then that is what I would have done. Hence my giving it one star. Avoid it at all costs ..... unless you are some kind of movie masochist.

I see the ratings usually are 1-3 or 7-9, it's either for you or it's not. All I'm sure of is that it was for me.

Set the Thames on Fire invites you to an absurd yet magical world, telling an incredibly bittersweet story of love and dreams and gives you a quite nihilistic, yet sweet look on the world.

"Why are you smiling?" "Because him and me even if we didn't work out.." "You haven't worked out" "Even if we didn't work out. We had fun."

It doesn't really have any profound massage, at least from my interpretation, yet it's a beautiful ,personal and incredibly sweet story of two people who found each other right when they needed to. It's not overly "romantic" nor too dramatic, it takes itself for what it is, which is a very entertaining tale in an amusing yet horrifying world.

Overall I recommend it if you're looking for something rather "artistic" and you're open to nontraditional story telling. If you're fine with watching kind of surreal, dream-like media than this will definitely fit your taste.

I saw it with half an eye on my work - couldn't bear to watch it.

There's a moment, when an aging magician performs one last trick, which made me pause and almost cry, but otherwise all of the other characters were representatives of a world lost onto itself - the horrifying image of every man for himself, when the *beep* hits the fan.

"As long as Iam alright". "And if I'm more than a little stupid or hope is just as good as an occasional free drink, then at least the monotony of slow death is broken".

It's probably one of the most bleak movies I have seen due to its severe chill of coming death.

its as a dying body with an almost dead heart in it, which only has one more trick it it... The rest is just on auto, because that how humans get through the day, and the ages.

Sorry, people - its a vision, not a failure. This is: "Don't go down this way". Which is way too much message for good art, but effective in all of its bleakness.

But REMARKABLE acting during this death of civilization. Sally Philips, Lily Loveless, Noel Fielding, Sadie Frost, Gerard Mcdermott, who make BIG of few lines. Its like a new generation to me, not being British. Tight fear, real insanity, comic vulgarity as in "everything is a (painful) laugh, when you're on a slow sinking ship".

I give it 8/10. Because its so goddamn painful!

Sorry, I just could not look it straight in the eyes. Thats me. Too much truth.