Review of Down Terrace (2010) by Robert B — 14 Feb 2014

Down Terrace is a weird little beast. The pieces of the film aren't necessarily remarkable by their lonesome: crime family (sort of a suburban mob-type thing, maybe?), family trouble, friend relations. It's presented in a very slice-of-life type manner.

But something about the way that director Ben Wheatley puts everything together creates something that feels completely different. It's hard for me to describe, or even accurately pinpoint.

There is a sense of brash realism in the uncomfortable way characters interact. This isn't feigned, finely tuned discomfort like you'd find in, say, an Adam Sandler movie. This is flawed humans interacting in flawed ways that allows them to be presented in a way that feels much more like a documentary than practiced fiction.

It's something I haven't seen from many film makers. The comparison that leaped immediately to mind was Reservoir Dogs, but without the consciously stylish aura Tarantino tries to wrap around his cinema or "look at me writing" attempts at dialogue.

Yet what Tarantino does in Reservoir Dogs, and his other films, is let his characters be characters--regardless of the style and flash. Strip all of that down, get the characters to their very core, and they would showcase a realistic honesty that is very present within Down Terrace.