Review of The Festival (2018) by James R — 18 Aug 2018

Really I was expecting a lot more from this film. Considering it's the brainchild from the team that created "The Inbetweeners", I was hoping for a bit more from the plot. The film pans out as if it's been written as it's been created, and whilst there are plenty of laughs throughout and some interesting characters, I came out at the end feeling like no questions had been answered, and I was pretty disappointed. If you want my opinion, you're better off waiting until it's out on DVD to watch it whilst you're a bit drunk with your mates, because maybe that way it'll seem like it was worth your time. But paying top dollar to see it at the cinema stone cold sober, I was wondering how I'll ever gain back the two hours I wasted watching it.

As much as I admire Joe Thomas, it does feel like he seems to play the same character in everything I've seen him in. Simon from the Inbetweeners and Kingsley from Fresh Meat seem like the same character next to Joe Thomas' portrayal of the hapless Nick. Claudia O'Doherty does a sterling job of playing the incredibly irritating Amy, and I can tell the idea is you're supposed to warm to her and feel sorry for her, but for me she just was way too much and I was much happier when she wasn't on screen. Newcomer Hammed Animashaun was probably the stand out actor for me, and he portrays a very balanced and entertaining character in Shane.

For me this film fell short of the mark, and I felt that under the premise of an eventful weekend at a festival there was much more that could've been done to win over the audience and create a film good enough to rival the Inbetweeners movies.