Review of White Lightnin' (2009) by Jason E — 26 Sep 2009

Doesn't lack for flash, all desaturated colours, woozy slo-mo and scratchy vinyl recordings of Appalachian rockabilly; it could easily be mistaken for a campaign for a new line of Levis, perhaps called Rednecks or Psychosis.

Still, the film is held together by a demented Gothic weirdness that derives in part from the nature of the story, in part from the full-throttle intensity of acting and direction. In the end, it may only be one of those Bundy or Dahmer biopics made by someone who knows how to wield a camera, but in its vision of low-rent, destructive, and eventually self-consuming celebrity, it's as close to an authentic B-picture as the UK Film Council have backed recently; it's also almost certainly a shoo-in as Nick Cave's favourite British feature of the year.