Mischief Night (in Yorkshire every 4 November children have free reign to play tricks without repercussion) has such a confident visual sheen that it looks draped in gold leaf, even when the camera is pelted with eggs by grinning tabloid ruffians in the energetic opening title sequence.
John Ellis's striking production design and Robbie Ryan's shimmering photography, embrace Penny Woolcock's celebration of the modern working class so entirely, that we are never truly concerned for her ensemble cast of Dickensian characters. They maybe on the frontline of multi-culturalism, drugs, and the war on terror, but reports from the trenches are promising, and these archetypes could teach us all a lesson or two in how to be dignified in adversity.
Woolcock, alongside directors Shane Meadows and Nick Love, represents a new optimism in the cinematic portrayal of the working class. The setting of Beeston is far from a Blairtopian vision of racial and religious harmony, but neither is… more »

Mischief Night (in Yorkshire every 4 November children have free reign to play tricks without repercussion) has such a confident visual sheen that it looks draped in gold leaf, even when the camera is pelted with eggs by grinning tabloid ruffians in the energetic opening title sequence.
John Ellis's striking production design and Robbie Ryan's shimmering photography, embrace Penny Woolcock's celebration of the modern working class so entirely, that we are never truly concerned for her ensemble cast of Dickensian characters. They maybe on the frontline of multi-culturalism, drugs, and the war on terror, but reports from the trenches are promising, and these archetypes could teach us all a lesson or two in how to be dignified in adversity.
Woolcock, alongside directors Shane Meadows and Nick Love, represents a new optimism in the cinematic portrayal of the working class. The setting of Beeston is far from a Blairtopian vision of racial and religious harmony, but neither is it, the seething pit of hatred the Daily Mail would have us believe. Like the undead world of the park that links and divides the white and Asian communities in the film, we are somewhere in between, somewhere different, somewhere daring.
Tina, played with an explosive dignity by Woolcock regular Kelli Hollis, explains through her narration that the cultural divide, "just happened" when everyone was sleeping. Her wry social commentary binds the numerous characters together, but more ingeniously, it undermines them when they most deserve it. "Cut and paste" cleric Eyepatch Imam is stuffed back firmly into his fundamentalist box when Tina reveals about her former schoolmate, "he used to use both eyes to look up my skirt."
Woolcock by reducing her villains to the level of pantomime figures keeps her characters safe but at the expense of any real tension. An urban fairytale this maybe but it doesn't have the bite or the teeth of Little Red Ridinghood. Even when Tina's youngest son Macauley and his gang are at the mercy of a baby-faced paedophile, Ron 'The Nonce', we know they will be okay. Not even the sinister shot that renders him featureless behind a glass panel (reminiscent of a chilling sequence from Wayne Kramer's 2006 film Running Scared) can convince us that the boys will end up as a news story. The police, who are refreshingly not painted as corrupt or racist but are portrayed as part of the community, Muslim female and white male, working together as officers, rescues them.
Yet despite all of it's ingenious ideas and narrative possibilities Mischief Night begins to feel like a social commentary version of Airplane (1980). The laughs come thick and fast but increasingly at the expense of any dramatic punch. Woolcock presents us with so many familiar scenes from other films about deprived areas and gives them a happy conclusion (Qassim's Subaru prowls the streets like the red BMW in Boyz n the Hood (1991) reminding us of that bloody climax but dented by Asif loses all menace. Tyler saves a junkie's baby from the bleach bottle in a Trainspotting (1996) drug den, filthy carpet and all) that when we finally reach the La Haine (1995) style of shooting of Qassim we instinctively know that it will end amicably.