Small Time

This is one of the most under-rated films of all time. It perfectly describes life on a council-estate in nineties

Britain and is down-right hilarious. The women in this film play spot-on parts, and the whole thing is perfectly acted with a tight script and brilliant lines. It is very conversation driven, very fast and if you are not clued in, may miss some of the humour

It's a good feeling when you 'discover' a great film. Especially one that due to the nature of it's budget and distribution, only you and a handful of other lucky people will ever see. Those were my thoughts after watching 'Small Time'. Costing only a couple of grand to make, and filmed on the streets of Nottingham, it follows the daily ups and downs, mainly downs, of a group of friends scraping a day-by-day living by ducking and diving and stealing anything to hand. The story leads to a grand finale, but it's the interaction and the banter between the characters that makes this film such a fun ride, they are totally believeable. The cast are mainly unknowns, but thats what probably makes the chemistry work. The music is good as well, two accoustic guitar tunes near the middle of the film are fantastic, they sum up totally how the characters are really feeling. Buy it and cherish it, Hollywood can keep all it's 'eye candy', this is proper film making.

The other reviews amaze me. Didn't they see the terrible wigs and hammy local college of performing arts acting. The characters appear to have been purchased as a past-their use-by date job lot from Stereotypes-R-Us. Harry Enfields scouser family, appearing on TV around the time this was made, are actually MORE believable as real people. This is partly due to the hideous legacy that is British DRAMA ACTING. From the days of Laurence Olivier right through to the BBC dramas of today there is the received wisdom of the correct way to act. The acting in this film is like watching performing arts students having their first go at trying on wigs and costumes in order to portray the poor but resilient folk of the forgotten council estate. It would appear that the script, too, was written by the council. Maybe the whole film was a council film. It certainly looked and felt like it. Like others, I enjoyed This Is England, which is the nearest Meadows has got to being a shadow of Ken Loach, and Dead Man's Shoes had some good moments (but a stupid ending). However, this, admittedly early, effort is poor and doesn't deserve the good reviews given by the few people who were brave enough to sit through the whole thing. This is not the worst ever use of a BFI grant but it is among the worst portrayals of life on a council estate that relies heavily on wigs and stereotypes.

A brilliant short/medium film that shows what a brilliant writer/director can do with a good script, imagination, a few mates and some dodgy wigs. The future of British cinema is safe in his hands

This doesn't deserve a 1 rating but it's as low as I can give here. It isn't even a film - it looks like it was shot with one camcorder, and with zero artistic ability. Why it was made and how it got released is one of the great mysteries of modern times.

If there was a script - which I doubt - it was probably written by a monkey with a typewriter, and then destroyed in a mysterious shed fire. I don't think there is a single actor in the film, and most of the dialogue (or gibberish) appears to be improvised.

No attempt has been made to create characters or a plot. It doesn't tell us anything about the people, the places, the situations ... need I go on? It's just random and boring camcorder footage of strange people in weird clothes and wigs.

So what is the point? I have no idea. Should you watch it? No.