A teenager suffering the painful ministrations of his social-climbing father; a lugubrious driving instructor with the hopes and dreams of his young charges on his shoulders; a young woman preparing an anniversary dinner for her partner, only for his best friend to turn up in his place. It takes only a few scenes for the audience to realise nothing is quite what it seems in each of these stories and as the characters’ journeys start to overlap both literally and thematically, the twists start coming thick and fast. Things are not necessarily worse than initially presented; for some characters, they are differently awful and for others, surprisingly more optimistic. Expectations are subverted as the story eschews the most likely outcomes, opting instead for the outrageous or the emotionally and visually arresting. As the stories mesh, the narrative cogs drive the film forward, not letting your attention wander for a moment with quick fire alternation between scenes both comic and serious – all dramatic.
Written and directed by the producer of Sixteen Years of Alcohol and featuring performances from the likes of Norman ‘Red Dwarf’ Lovett, Feedback is a fast-paced black comedy with a dark underbelly and a great soundtrack. KM
