Wild Bill

source: Wild Bill

Since Guy Ritchie's 1998 feature debut Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, British drama has been obsessed with clichéd gangster movies. They're relatively low cost to make, quick turnaround shoots with huge box office opportunity. Stylistically a mixture of fifties kitchen sink drama and the angry young men fronted British New Wave, the genre today has quickly become an outmoded self-parody, in desperate need of revitalising. Along comes venerable actor Dexter Fletcher. Rising from the fag ash of Guy Ritchie's Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, his first foray into filmmaking takes the same hackneyed themes of…Hackney, and tells a new story full of satire, sincerity and heart. After eight years behind bars, "Wild Bill" Hayward (Charlie Creed-Miles) returns home to his family in their tower block home. The wife is nowhere to be seen, abandoning their two children – paternal teenager Dean (Will Poulter) and his potty mouthed brother Jimmy (Sammy Williams) – for the sunny sights of Spain with her new boyfriend. A tough nestle back in to normality, the broken home soon leads to social services reps (Jaime Winstone and Jason Flemyng) asking questions. They fend them off by pretending to play happy families, but the bossy Dean tells his work-shy dad to go straight and get a job. Doing porridge has changed the ex-drug dealer, but unfortunately the apple doesn't fall far from the tree as Jimmy is accosted by local thug Terry (Leo Gregory) as a drug mule. Fighting for his freedom on the outside, Bill steps back in to the game, saving his son and taking a quick crash course on parenthood in the process. Whilst the story is far from revolutionary, Fletcher and his writing partner Danny King have crafted a truly excellent script, which is neither excessively ghettoized, nor saccharine. The good works lead to good performances too, particularly from Son of Rambow's Bill Poultner, showing great range as the apathetic teenager turned surrogate father figure. Virtually a non-budget movie, it's clear that Fletcher went through the phonebook and asked for a few favours of his supporting cast. Everyone's here: the compelling Olivia Williams as the concerned social worker, Sean Pertwee as the no-nonsense constable who through Bill in the slammer those eight years ago and, best of all, Andy Serkis puts down the motion capture play things for a menacing performance as an East London mafioso. I wish he put down the motion capture play things and started doing more straight-up screen performances; his animated face-acting is always a scene stealer. Unfortunately there is some duds amongst all the finite work. Misfits' Iwan Rhoen is insufferable as a slang-tastic hoodlum – so much that he even starts to annoy his co-stars. Newcomer Liz White's turn as an abused call girl is too flippant and lacks character depth. The biggest disappointment comes from Wild Bill himself. Sublime as a drugged-up Billy incarnate in Gary Oldman's Nil by Mouth, he is too emotionally uncharged throughout. Evenstill, it's still a brilliant debut from Fletcher. Working on film sets since the young age of ten when he played Baby Face in Alan Parker's Bugsy Malone, he clearly has a deep insight of how to craft a story, shoot a scene and carve out some solid performances. All that, plus a great ska fever soundtrack and the best pub-fight sequence since Shaun of the Dead. It's as good as a gangster film can get. Let's hope he puts down the faux-Burberry scarves and trade them in for invigorated, ambitious new material. Read more reviews now at www.366movies.com

What do you do when you come back home after serving time, and find your children abandoned by their mother, fending for themselves in their apartment. What do you do, when to add to your miseries the social service gives you one final warning to either mend your ways, or lose your family forever. I can't say much about us, but Wild Bill Hayward (Charlie Creed-Miles) works as a human signpost. He can't risk it and wants to set the broken pieces right. His elder son Dean (Will Poulter) is a no nonsense guy. A tough life in the absence of his parents has made him being worked up all the time. But the crown goes to Jimmy (Sammy Williams) who is the sweetest kid in the block, and is successfully, and willingly lured by the drug peddlers, and the local drug dealer. He is the one who seems to have inherited his father's genes perhaps. But Bill knows that he has to fight back. He has to keep Jimmy out of harms way, and in his mission, he is arrested again for breaking the terms of the parole. The story of the film is good, but the way it has been scripted and has been shot makes that difference, and makes it a winner. Two classy scenes that's a must watch. The scene where Bill makes a paper airplane and propels it to take a wonderful flight from his balcony much to the delight of Jimmy. The second one is the last scene, when he tells the cop as he is about to be driven away on the police car. "They are my boys. I am their dad", and then he cries almost inconsolably. I still feel that powerful emotion while I am writing this review. It's a must watch movie that would remind you of the style in Tyrannosaur and most of the attitude in Attack the Block. Go for it. Indiekaleidoscope

Wild Bill – CATCH IT (B+) Wild bill is a very interesting British movie about ex convict returning home after 8 years and realize that his sons now 11 & 15 are living alone since their mother fled to Spain with her lover. When social services find out he pretend to stay for a while with his sons until social services give him back the guardianship. The concept of the movie is interesting and the execution is even more interesting. This movie is as real as it could have get, filled with brilliant performance each and everyone. Charlie Creed-Mills is great in his part. Will Poulter really impress me for the first time I actually hated him in Narnia 3. Iwan Rheon is soo talented and even in small roles you will notice him he is simply amazing. Can't wait to see him in "Game Of Thrones". Liz White looked hot. Charlotte Spencer, Jamie Winstone, Sammy Williams, Leo Gregory and Andy Sarkins did a good job. On the whole, Wild Bill is a very good entertaining movie with heart. Watch it! c

For anybody abroad who sees this film and is familiar with the touristy London, the sight of these disgusting squalid flats and the amount of kids dealing or hooked on drugs will be shocked. Alas, I fear this is far closer to the real inner city areas than our politicians care to confess, and I pity any child who grows up in these depressing surroundings as they have very little hope. Aside from having more smackable 'people' in it than any recent film in living memory, it also provides one of the more brutal punch-ups as Wild Bill lays into the gangstas who threaten his children. Well, you'd do the same wouldn't you? It's not a great drama, with a pretty standard storyline we've all seen before in various guises and lots of shouting which is supposed to pass for acting. But it's never boring, and Charlie Creed-Miles is great as the ex-con titular character. If only all inmates could be as easily reformed as him... 6/10

Bill is back and he wants to go straight, and connect back to his kids who don't like him much - can he go straight when the world wants to bring him back down? It is a good film, i liked it but i found myself shouting at the TV on occasion - too many things are introduced but never fleshed out enough and in some cases forgotten about. The massive block of coke they get? What about the bag of drugs they give the lead - what happens to them? The copper(Dear Sean)with his foreboding warning, the massive drug king pin? the lead roles back history; what had he done to a)the drug king pin and b) the drug dealers brother?? You are left to assume but never find out... Rant over. Overall the film is a good one but in parts i felt like i was watching a comedy; particularly the pub fight scene - Dicky? Hard? Pepper spray and a blade? He runs off first chance he gets, lol. They all do. The landlord hides in the cellar and his wife(poss Daughter) moans that she 'only just hoovered'. Does that sound serious? not sure it adds to the overall feeling for the scene... I'm ranting again. Argh. Despite the above - i would watch it again, the story was good and Dexter has an eye for direction, the cast did themselves proud (although the drug kingpin was a bit lame with his Maccy D's coffee). There is a beautiful scene with a paper aeroplane, rarely have i seen a scene that sums a moment up so well, a real gem for that scene alone. Enjoy it, but expect to be a little bit confused, if not a little annoyed in parts. 7/10 for me.

After 8 years inside Bill Hayward returns home to find his now 11 and 15 year old sons abandoned by their mother and fending for themselves. Dean the older boy has found a job and is doing his best to bring up his younger brother Jimmy, but the arrival of Bill has brought them to the attention of social services. With the danger of being put into care looming, Dean forces his Dad to stay by threatening to grass him up for dealing. He agrees to stay for a week to fool social services that the boys are being cared for. Bill quickly connects with Jimmy and through this new bond starts to realise what he's been missing. He has a family, he is a father. However, their happy family is short lived when Jimmy gets into trouble with Bill's old cohorts.... You would be forgiven, if you thought this was just another one of those kitchen sink type London dramas that arrived ten a penny after the arrival of one Guy Ritchie. And while this has similarities to many of those films, thanks to Fletchers great direction, and the genius portrayal of the titular character by Miles, this is one of those rare cases where a British film about a criminal trying to go straight, despite his past catching up with him, is very, very good. It helps too that the chemistry between the screen family is solid, and it's pretty believable. Apart from the typecast white guy who thinks he is of a different ethnicity, its very believable, the villains are to your typical wide boys, and it's very funny and sweet in places. It's a shame that it does carry the burden of an atypical Brit crime flick, but it's a very powerful family drama, that carries emotional depth, and a very funny streak throughout. Recommended.

Actor Dexter Fletcher turns to directing. Armed with a small budget he seems to have turned to some friends such as Sean Pertwee, Andy Serkis and Olivia Williams to make cameos who appear for a scene or two. The main performances are from Charlie Creed-Miles who is Wild Bill and his two sons played by Will Poulter and Sammy Williams. Wild Bill has been released from a eight years stretch under licence and finds out that his two young children living alone for the last nine months. Their mother has abandoned them and hopped it to Spain. In order for them not to be taken into care he has to be a father to them and gain their respect. Bill has had no presence in their lives due to his stint in jail. Poulter who is better known through the Narnia films and We're the Millers gives the best performance as a 15 year old who has to work on a building site and care for his younger sibling. He is matched by Creed- Miles. who has to take responsibility maybe for the first time in his life. Bill has to try to keep in the straight and narrow by avoiding the low life who wants him to go back to drug dealing and deal with the trouble his youngest son has got himself into. The film is set in Stratford in the shadow of the London Olympic Stadium. It is set a year before the 2012 Olympics. It does have a very cliché looking urban tower block London setting. It kinds of reminds you of all those Death Wish type films of the 1970s set in New York where you have muggers, drug dealers and rapists in every corner, far outnumbering just ordinary people getting on with their lives. What is worse you have some white people speaking in black patois which is very irritating. It is low budget movie making, the film has heart, a very good staged fight scene set in a pub and apart from a paper plane flying scene very little cinematic flair. It could be something British directors such as Alan Clarke could had knocked out rather easily 30 years ago for the BBC's Play for Today strand.

On the one hand, I loved the story. Irresponsible father reconnecting with his family and cleaning up the children's mess. But on the other hand he got busted in the end by law enforcers. Hey, are those law enforcers really so lawless? The law, I would like to hope, tries to be more humane and those who enforce it are put there to compensate its flaws. That what is usually praised in the films. As in 'Derailed', 'The Departed', let alone other innumerable examples. In those films police, when stumbles upon a conflict between the written law and justice, looks into the situation and makes a just choice. In 'Wild Bill' law enforcement is shown as some inhuman, mechanical force, careless of justice. And it cannot be even communicated with. They are just there and act as if they are robots. They represent some higher, inanimate power, or is it just safe for me to think of them as of something inanimate, because if I had believed that they are real alive people, it would destroy my worldview? I think that is why no one of police officers is ever shown in the film. Because no one would ever believe that human beings can act like this. All this reminds me of Dostoevski books, in which the author always puts characters in some totally unrealistic situations that make them to make hard decisions, to choose the less of two evils. Situations like the one Bill was put in. Such stories are very sob-inducing, hence are considered to be powerful stuff by readers and viewers. So that what 'Wild Bill' essentially is. A sob-inducing machine. I do not like that. I feel manipulated and stripped of my time. Although, I liked the acting.

Wow guys cinematic magic.... I rarely sit watching a movie without sighing in despair or getting up to go to the toilet without a really pressing bladder...this movie made me hold my kitten like bladder, an even press pause....I just sat in awe of the magic this movie portrays...wont bore you with BS is awesome!!..acting is superb well done to each and everyone directing camera the whole shebang!! I cant fault it..am going to watch it again hope this movie wins an award an to Bill the actor ....havent even had time to check your name but congrats AAA+ totally believable and felt every emotion.... raw inviting realism on so many levels!! A masterpiece!