A mix of tried and tested ingredients makes for a rocking good time in Thomas Beatty’s fun and unserious musical comedy.
There’s always a degree of familiarity when approaching the themes and characters in the world of washed up musicians but in his directorial feature debut Thomas Beatty mostly manages to keep his ragtag group of misfits rolling along. A strong directorial style and freewheeling attitude add to the good natured feel of the low-budget anarchy and make the film and its simple message easy to like.
We open on a party that has petered into the early hours of the morning. A time when all the coked up guests are just about hanging on and no-one knows whether to keep it going or kick the stragglers out. Here we follow Creamore (Charlie Freemore) , the drug addicted head of his family band. As he sniffs and smokes his way through the flat he gets a call from the band’s agent Mel (Kele le Roc). She likes the new album but not enough to get onboard, she needs one more song, the all important hook of the album and title. So along with his sister and lead singer Spice (Mei Bignall), hippie dippy brother Sexton (Elijah Rowen) and existential, also drug addled brother Wiggie or “The Wig” (Jack McEvoy) they’ve got 24 hours to deliver with not many frazzled brain cells or pre-existing ideas to link together.
The set up makes way for a straightforward story carried out with mixed variations of success. There isn’t much of a throughline from narrative to themes of familial tension, addiction and the inability to let go of a fading dream, but there doesn’t necessarily have to be. Beatty knows exactly what he wants and that is an escalating set of comedic sequences and whacky characters to exasperate the time crunched tension, pressure and futility of creating a hit or any song. These lot can barely look after themselves and there’s a peppy back and forth as the family bicker and keep finding new ways to procrastinate and fail to make the impossible possible. Beatty’s direction is energetic and his sharp use of camera movement and a mix of varied, inventive shots and camera tricks elevates the plight of the exhausted foursome.
Like a band struggling to forge an identity or a bit of consistency there are some inherent pitfalls that the film gets trapped in. Not every zany side character works, especially a quippy police duo that is supposed to have the same type of rapport as the Bill Hader, Seth Rogan Superbad cops but falls relatively flat. A drug dealing shaman (Harvey Dean) also drags in a predictable scene but there’s a great remedy to this in an inspired battle of London politeisms between Sexton and rival band lead Storkey (Louis Starkey). The film is slightly overstuffed and can grow tired and unfocused, more like a sketch series than a cohesive feature. But the central four all give committed performances and eventually make you believe in the skewered family dynamic and the rock & roll messiness and visible stitches can mostly be forgiven.
3 / 5
The Hook is an enjoyable, undemanding romp through one hellish, exhausting day and a promising calling card for director Beatty.
