BULL – A mob enforcer, seemingly dispatched by his own gang after they turn against him, returns following a mysterious absence to track down and reunite with his son. ‘Bull’ comes from the director of ‘London to Brighton’ and is full of the same feeling of a despairing UK, the sense that the social façade of morning TV and high-street takeaways conceals a pretty cold and brutal world. ‘Bull’ is a bit more suburban, but its suburbs are a place where you can get your fingers chopped if you don’t sign off on some gangster’s whim. I found it utterly gripping; I haven’t seen such a compelling crime flick for a long time, and I’m not surprised that reviewers have mentioned echoes of Ben Wheately, Shane Meadows’ ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’, and for my money that harsh but superlative revenger ‘The Horseman’. It’s terse, clipped and muscular, as elliptical as arthouse but in its marrow a down and dirty thriller - it just goes for it, like any one of the predatory arseholes who inhabit it. A few may have reservations about the ending, but I was expecting something like it and actually enjoyed the left-fieldness of it. Anyway, just excellent really, go and see it.
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