Take one fractured family and deposit a fancy hired mansion with way too much booze to ring in the New Year and watch how it all falls apart. NEWS. 2018 Directed by Ben Wheatley. The characters are almost all awful and unhappy people, with only David’s German girlfriend (Alexandra Maria Lara) showing any grace under pressure. This love-rat brother has angered and broken the hearts of some of people there, and – an exquisite refinement of family agony – he too has loaned money to their profligate and incompetent dad, more money than Colin it seems, so there are toxic and masochistic elements of rivalry. The performances are all strong, with Wheatley's proxy Maskell unafraid to get nasty and particularly fine work from Dance, who seems to get better as he grows older. Happy New Year, Colin Burstead review – Ben Wheatley contrives a simmering hothouse of misery 3 out of 5 stars. and the Terms and Policies, [Wheatley] succeeds because the characters and the situation are so familiar, and their moral conundrums, insecurities and actions are all relatable. Happy New Year, Colin Burstead ... Dorset, the film focuses on the Burstead family, particularly the titular Colin, who’s hired the venue to see in the New Year. Ben Wheatley offers an absurdly realistic look at family engagements in his latest film ‘Happy New Year, Colin Burstead’. Happy New Year, Colin Burstead. Directed by Ben Wheatley. There's not a bum note among the cast, and DP Laurie Rose continues to be Wheatley's most valuable weapon, making a set-up that could feel theatrical prove genuinely cinematic. Happy New Year, Colin Burstead. But lest anyone think that the dysfunctional-family-brought-together-during-the-holidays premise of “Happy New Year, Colin Burstead,” Wheatley’s new film, means that the director’s gone all “The Family Stone” on us, rest assured that there’s much more “Festen” DNA here than anything else. The film aims to be Festen but is nowhere near as good. Sidney Poitier’s 7 Most Memorable Performances, All Harry Potter Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer, Golden Tomato Awards: Best Movies & TV of 2020. Sometimes Always Never review – Bill Nighy spellbinding in Scrabble drama. Don't have an account? Yet the most pointed moments involve Riley’s David, who has arrived with his partner, elegantly played by Alexandra Maria Lara. Cuts like acid through the fatty, feel-good excess of the Christmas film canon. Could either alienate general audiences expecting something a little more even or rope enthusiasts in with its natural, hand-held aesthetic. Oh, and it’s ace too— perhaps Wheatley’s most totally satisfying film to date. With Happy New Year, Colin Burstead, Ben Wheatley has crafted a very funny, very real family drama that shows a simple universal truth: all families are weird. Commanding a handheld camera, Wheatley orchestrated this comedy with delirium-free, improvised-like routines that bring it closer to the experimental genre. Wheatley appears to have hired a big house, filled it with friends and booze, giving each person a thin description of their character, then waited for the magic to happen. The film follows the Burstead family as Colin, played by Ben Wheatley regular Neil Maskell, rents a stately home to host his extended family for a New … Happy New Year, Colin Burstead, however, feels lived in and raw. While it may be a little too acidic for some palettes, those who dread the annual family get-together round the telly at Christmas will find plenty to cringe over. Adopting a Dogme 95-like approach – filled with naturalistic, improvisatory performances filmed on handheld cameras – Happy New Year, Colin Burstead’s recalls Thomas Vinterberg’s The Celebration in more ways than one. There is no way that this could not all mightily kick off; and kick off it duly does. … Maskell is Colin Burstead himself, a stressed middle-aged bloke who has decided for complex, ambiguous reasons to host a big New Year’s eve party for his extended family at a rented country house. Get the freshest reviews, news, and more delivered right to your inbox! Happy New Year, Colin Burstead. When it was announced that Wheatley was producing a brand new picture to be […] There are no featured reviews for because the movie has not released yet (). Scene by scene, this film is simmering with a crackling atmosphere of impending doom, and it isn’t long before it does more than impend. But the performances are all great; they collectively create a directionless storm-cloud of disquiet. I expected a dark tragicomedy and this fell way short. [It] represents an unfortunate revival of that boring old Dogme style, which should have been laid to rest long ago and, for me, the jittery, all-over-the-place, cinematography makes the film virtually unwatchable. 'Happy New Year, Colin Burstead': Review By Jonathan Romney 2018-10-12T10:09:00+01:00 Ben Wheatley goes back to his roots for this family reunion set in a country house over New Year’s Eve You only have to consider what the original working title was for Wheatley’s film: ‘Colin, You Anus’. Shot in two weeks with cast and crew all living on-site, Happy New Year, Colin Burstead is an unappetising advertisement for modern Britain. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 85% based on 27 reviews, and an average rating of 7/10. From beginning to end, it made me laugh and the high-energy family tension was brilliant to watch. Happy New Year, Colin Burstead ; Where to watch JustWatch. See Movies in Theaters Happy New Year, Colin Burstead Quotes There are no approved quotes yet for this movie. First among equals is the excellent Neil Maskell, who appeared in Wheatley’s 2011 breakthrough, the horror nightmare Kill List. All rights reserved. By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy Forgot your password? Sign up here. In strong opposition to Wheatley’s entire prior filmography, Happy New Year, Colin Burstead. What results is a disjointed mess. en Wheatley’s Happy New Year, Colin Burstead is a hothouse flower of misery, sprouting dozens of resentment-buds under artificially controlled conditions. Wheatley is working from a very familiar dramatic blueprint in Happy New Year, Colin Burstead, that of the fractious family gathering shaken by … But too many characters get lost in the margins and the drama itself doesn't amount to very much. Happy New Year, Colin Burstead The latest trick from Essex-born writer and director Ben Wheatley is a darkly funny, deeply English character piece drawn, ever so slightly, from no less than Shakespeare’s Coriolanus . The ensemble cast tackle [Ben] Wheatley's memorable dialogue with aplomb, while also selling the increasingly chaotic scenarios. After two pictures that fused deliberately acerbic British filmmaking with Hollywood stardom, Ben Wheatley returns to his roots with Happy New Year, Colin Burstead. Ben Wheatley’s Happy New Year, Colin Burstead is a hothouse flower of misery, sprouting dozens of resentment-buds under artificially controlled conditions. If “Happy New Year, Colin Burstead” is an extended pilot, however, it’s a pleasingly cinematic one: unresolved and ragged with small open wounds, but self-contained in … B en Wheatley’s Happy New Year, Colin Burstead is a hothouse flower of misery, sprouting dozens of resentment-buds under artificially controlled conditions. Unfortunately for Colin his position of power in the family is under serious threat from the arrival of his estranged brother David. He keeps piously talking about the importance of “family”, but with a face like thunder, as if this is trying his saintly patience. Every minute of this film has something of interest, every frame is well composed. From beginning to end, it made me laugh and the high-energy family tension was brilliant to watch. It is a tense ensemble drama, with intriguing echoes of Alan Ayckbourn and Thomas Vinterberg’s Festen; Laurie Rose’s handheld camerawork is intimate and dynamic, and it is written by Wheatley himself with contributions from a really strong cast. Happy New Year, Colin Burstead comes across as a modern Play for Today with Mike Leigh type improvisation. Colin’s parents are there, played by Bill Paterson and Doon Mackichan, and from the very first there is trouble. With family. Both radiate victimised dissatisfaction. Indeed, Happy New Year, Colin Burstead has to hold our attention with no tricks, gimmicks or flim -flam; it's all about storytelling, and Wheatley is terrific at that. At a time when Wheatley’s native England is still in the middle of a pretty volatile separation period, this film’s examination of hostility, … Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password. strikes a thickly naturalistic tone throughout, to … Neil Maskell is the standout performer in Wheatley’s drama of dysfunction, as a man inviting his family to a New Year party in the country, Last modified on Sat 13 Oct 2018 09.10 BST. Working with Wheatley, Maskell proved he is so much more than the geezer roles in which our industry might otherwise have confined him, and I almost wonder if, just as Leonardo DiCaprio is thought to be the acting-avatar of Christopher Nolan, and Johnny Depp the projection of Tim Burton, so Maskell might come to be thought of as Wheatley’s own onscreen alter ego, a Mr Hyde to his Dr Jekyll: sceptical, alienated, pulsating with controlled energy. Other relatives and friends show up, like malevolent courtiers and plotters in some bizarre 21st century version of Wolf Hall: played among others by Hayley Squires, Charles Dance, Asim Chaudry, Mark Monero and Sarah Baxendale. movie reviews & Metacritic score: Colin hires a lavish country manor for his extended family to celebrate New Year. Colin’s dad has apparently borrowed money from Colin for some doomed business venture and now wants to borrow more. Sometimes as a viewer, you become an eavesdropper and an uninvited guest to this drama that is playing out in seemingly every room of the mansion as old flames appear, black sheep arrive, and fathers beg sons for money. Colin’s sister Gini (Squires) has gone ahead and behind Colin’s back invited the very person that he wanted to exclude: the black-sheep brother David whom Colin hasn’t seen for five years, played by Sam Riley. It is a tense ensemble drama, with intriguing echoes of Alan Ayckbourn and Thomas Vinterberg’s Festen; Laurie Rose’s handheld camerawork is intimate and dynamic, and it is written by Wheatley himself with contributions from a really strong cast. Ben Wheatley has captured a feeling of rote celebration, but through the eyes of a dysfunctional family that also happen to be a bunch of complete and utter Bursteads. A nightmarish vision of familial disharmony... Ben Wheatley leaves behind the gore for something even worse. Happy New Year, Colin Burstead is one of his smallest scale projects but I loved it. Copyright © Fandango. ... One of the most nuanced, entertaining comedies of the year - and that's quite something for a film that revolves around a house of Brits arguing with one another. Farah Cheded; October 18, 2018 'Happy New Year, Colin Burstead' Review: A Violence-Free Ben Wheatley Movie is Born (LFF) Ben Wheatley's holiday drama is almost nothing like his previous work. Loosely adapted from Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, Happy New Year, Colin Burstead trades Roman politicking and murder for a disastrous family party where everyone is yelling and no one is listening.It might lower the stakes somewhat from the original, but this by no means decreases the dread and discomfort – this is a Ben Wheatley film after all. And yet I admit I found there was something a bit contrived and unreal about it, like an epic improv session. Happy New Year, Colin Burstead / Reviews FilmInk At a time when Wheatley’s native England is still in the middle of a pretty volatile separation period, this film’s examination of hostility, but also the need for peace, feels especially needed. March 15, 2020. Synopsis Party. With Neil Maskell, Sura Dohnke, Marvin Maskell, Nicole Nettleingham. Colin hires a lavish country manor for his extended family to celebrate New Year. I was never entirely convinced that Colin and David’s confrontation really meant something, or that the drama was really going anywhere. MAIL. Happy New Year, Colin Burstead – first look review. Happy New Year, Colin Burstead is one of his smallest scale projects but I loved it. Just because a film like this appears so modest, that doesn't make it any easier. Happy New Year, Colin Burstead centres on the gathering of a foul-mouthed, dysfunctional family and the film perfectly captures the awkward family experience that many of us Happy New Year, Colin Burstead is, ostensibly, a film about a fractured family having a get-together at a rented manor house for New Year’s Eve, and spending the whole night bickering. Colin has rented a stately country home for his extended family’s New Year celebrations. March 15, 2020 Review, Theatrical, This Week Leave a Comment. Yet one thing threatens to upend whatever slender chance the party had of going off smoothly. It was even co-produced by BBC Films. ...offers an ongoing dialectic on family, power and history that has no real beginning or end - which is to say that this production, though modest, remains highly ambitious, and as timeless as it is also very much of its moment. A fter two big-budget projects resplendent with Hollywood stars, Ben Wheatley has returned to his roots for his latest outing, Happy New Year, Colin Burstead (previously known as Colin You Anus), casting old friend Neil Maskell at the centre of his family-focused dramedy. Happy New Year, Colin Burstead. Maskell’s utterly unsympathetic face is very funny. On arriving at the party, his mum semi-intentionally trips over the front step on her way into the poundshop Downton that Colin has hired for the event and has to be whimperingly conveyed around in a wheelchair from then on. and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango. A family gathering to ring in the new year spells trouble in the latest from Ben Wheatley. 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