Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels has a lot to answer for. Guy Ritchie’s labyrinthine comedy gangster film that was further cemented by the all star ‘Snatch’ a few years later saw endless pale imitations nearly all of which were varying degrees of dreadful. So how does Semolina Pilchard fare?
The Semolina Pilchard story…
Written and directed by Mike Clarke who his film to Liverpool where it sees Clara Reynolds (Sarah Louise Chadwick) having fled the city to work in London as a waitress having left her crime family headed up by her gangster father Gerry (Joe McGann). She wants nothing to do with the world of criminality that her father ran but it’s her father who summons her back home. Reluctantly returning to Liverpool Clara finds that her call back to the city is because her father is dying and she being the eldest of his daughters is set to inherit his empire that she has no interest. However his other daughter Danika (Sophia Leanne Kelly) is very interested in fact she’s determined that she should inherit it all rather than her sister and to facilitate this she hires Rosie (Alina Allison) a hit woman who is set on becoming a singing superstar. Into the mix is Gerry’s henchman Davey (Joe Egan), Max (Macauley Cooper) and his gang of hapless halfwits pulling off half arsed post office robberies as well as a rival crime boss with his own intentions that inevitably all builds to the showdown.
There’s a lot to like about the film starting with a clever and often laugh out loud script, a stellar cast with stand out turns by the largely unknown cast supplemented by famous faces that includes Joe McGann, James Dreyfus and Tina Malone and a fleeting cameo from Ricky Tomlinson plus actors whose faces you’ll know if not their names.
See it?
It’s all well orchestrated by director and co-writer Mike Clarke who has a number of short films behind him and this is his second feature film. Playing like a Goodfellas meets Lock Stock it’s an eye catching film that for once is not all about cockney villains it’s smartly edited with clever transitions between scenes and a sparkling script. Semolina Pilchard is a title that doesn’t do the film justice (it’s a riff on The Beatles ‘I Am the Walrus’ and there’s references to it throughout the entire film for the eagle eyed even to the very end of the credits) which is a shame as the film deserves a wider audience on a big screen. But give this one a look – it’s an enjoyably potty mouthed twisty tailed gangster romp and bodes well for whatever Mike Clarke does next.
related feature : Actor James Dreyfus talks about his career, favourite films & future roles!
related feature : Nick Moran talks to us about Lock Stock, Harry Potter, directing and much much more!
We chat to Mike Clarke and Joe McGann about the film….
Here’s the trailer…..
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