Just Jim

It's quite a lonely film. Jim is clealy a very strange guy who doesn't connect with society until an American comes by to teach him the ways of being cool.

Then it all goes a bit weird. I can't work out which parts are dreams or real. The visions and then the reality. It's an isolated movie and it starts to look into bullying and important social issues but then goes on a complete tangent.

I'm just ending-up finishing lost. The ending is as empty as it started without it actually filling anything. I'm struggling to understand this concept and why it was done. It's a shame. Just rather meaningless despite the good original idea.

If you enjoy black comedy, deliberate pacing, and having to come to your own conclusions on plot ambiguity - think Barton Fink for example - then you're in for a treat. If you need a neatly resolved ending, you'll be frustrated. As the former I loved it. Excellent direction, photography, and score; tight performances - I'm looking forward to his next. Makes a good double-bill with Aki Kaurismäki's "The Match Factory Girl".

A lonely teenagers life is transformed upon the arrival of his American next door neighbour.

This is a very quirky dark comedy that will not appeal to everyone. After a relatively sluggish start setting up the situation things pick up with the arrival of mysterious American Emile Hirsch.

Emile Hirsch is great and Craig Roberts who bears an uncanny resemblance and acting style to Martin Freeman is also superb as the unpopular kid trying to improve his social standing.

Despite the good acting this is a hit and miss affair. There are some good ideas here and some good scenes but too many of them fall flat. The pacing isn't great and it seems to bounce from place to place without any real direction.

Overall this isn't a bad film it's just a bit too way out there for my taste and I doubt I'd watch it again.

This movie is a lot of things.

It's an homage (or a rip-off, you choose) of Punch Drunk Love, Mulholland Drive, and Rebel Without A Cause.

It's a teen coming of age film that takes every genre trope and exaggerates it to bizarre extremities.

It's a comedy and, in certain segments, it's fairly unsettling.

It has an extremely pronounced tonal shift around halfway through that totally caught me off guard.

The camera-work is quite good, and the film looks great. The soundtrack is fantastic and it ranges from jangling ambiance (Punch Drunk Love) to deep drones (Mulholland Drive).

For a movie that copies so much, it all feels very original. Look forward to Craig Robert's next.

Diminutive Craig Roberts did a memorable turn in the BBC3 series Being Human. In Just Jim he stars as well as directing and writing the film.

He plays lonely Welsh teenager Jim, who is a bit of a social outcast. Even his dog runs away from him. Then a mysterious American called Dean (Emile Hirsch) moves next door to him and Dean is modelled on a rebellious James Dean.

He makes Jim look cool by giving him a kind of 50s American look. Jim's newly rebellious attitude lands him in trouble at school and it is left open ended if Dean is just a figment of an over- imaginative teenage brain.

This is a slight coming of age story with a jagged tonal shift in the latter part of the film. It is a little bit weird and off kilter but really does not amount to much.