Small Time Obsession
UK 2000
Reviewed by Nina Caplan
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
London, the present. Michael, Chris, Steve and John are friends who share an Anglo-Polish background and indulge in occasional acts of petty crime to make ends meet. Michael - who spends most of his time at the dog races where his greyhound Bullitt occasionally runs - has to decide whether he wants to take over the shop his father runs. John looks after his depressed mother who spends her days in bed. The group attend a friend's wedding reception. There, Chris discovers that his girlfriend Ali is pregnant. Local criminals Geordie and Pope turn up. Chris agrees to pick up a van to help with a job Geordie's doing for the local mobster Mr Page.
Michael - who has taken an instant dislike to Geordie - Steve and John reluctantly help Chris pick up the van. Unbeknown to them, the van contains a stash of drugs. Chris and Ali split up. Michael tells Ali that he loves her and they sleep together. The next day, however, she's back with Chris. Discovering this, Michael punches Chris, then insults Geordie; Pope then beats Michael up. In revenge, Michael smashes up Geordie and Pope's car with a baseball bat.
The following day, Pope seeks out Michael at the racetrack; let off its lead, Bullitt chases Pope into the path of a moving car. He's run over and killed. Geordie demands retribution and asks Chris to bring Michael to him. After discovering that Chris became involved with Geordie and Pope to pay off a debt John owed them, Michael decides to see Chris. The two friends meet in a disused factory; Geordie appears, looking for Michael. Chris refuses to let him harm Michael; Geordie then stabs Chris. Michael beats up Geordie. Later, Chris recovers from his stab wounds.
Review
Small Time Obsession isn't so much a gangster film as a movie museum. Alongside the leaden dialogue ("If things look shitty today, don't matter cause there's always tomorrow"), the viewer is exposed to a range of styles and genres, from home-movie footage of the four lads' South London patch (which evokes the opening moments of Martin Scorsese's coming-of-age gangster movie Mean Streets, 1973) to references to such seminal crime thrillers as Bullitt (Michael even names his greyhound after the 1968 film). But despite first-time feature writer-director Piotr Szkopiak's film-buff knowledge and evident personal attachment to the material, Small Time Obsession fails on almost every level.
Szkopiak's attempts to explore the divided loyalties of his Anglo-Polish characters - the four friends at the centre of the film choose to reject their immigrant parents' old-country attachments - amount to a few flatly staged scenes where Michael argues with his traditionalist family. The fact that Alex King, who plays Michael, doesn't appear to speak Polish while his screen parents converse with him as if he does hardly helps. Szkopiak's portrait of the Anglo-Polish community is similarly disappointing, limited to Steve's reference to the type of vodka served at a wedding reception and scenes at a specialist delicatessen and a restaurant, both of which are popular with London's Polish residents.
As a crime film, Small Time Obsession fares little better. Chris is too much of a thug for his explanation of his involvement with the drug runner Geordie to carry any kind of conviction. (He hooked up with Geordie and Pope, he reveals, to pay back a debt his friend John owed them.) Psychological subtlety and intimate, character-based scenes obviously don't bring out the best in Szkopiak - the sequences between Ali and Michael are stiffly done while John's rapprochement with his depressed mother is positively embarrassing. The freewheeling fun of the car chase at the end of the film suggests that Szkopiak should have stuck more closely to the Bullitt template he admires.
Credits
- Director
- Piotr Szkopiak
- Producer
- Piotr Szkopiak
- Screenplay
- Piotr Szkopiak
- Director of Photography
- Niels Reedtz Johansen
- Editor
- Piotr Szkopiak
- Production Designer
- Vince Raj
- Music
- Martin Bell
- ©Solo Films Ltd.
- Production Companies
- Guerilla Films presents
- a Solo Films production in association with the Seventh Twelfth Collective
- Executive Producer
- David Nicholas Wilkinson
- Co-producers
- Ian David Diaz
- Julian Boote
- Associate Producers
- Geoff Lawson
- Kevin Nelson
- Mark Sloper
- Unit Production Managers
- Louise Melotte
- Allegra Monico
- Polish Locations Associate
- Zygmunt Szkopiak
- Assistant Directors
- Ian David Diaz
- Andrew Haigh
- Robin Harris
- Karen Hurley
- Script Supervisors
- Claire Jones
- Penny Locke
- Casting
- Piotr Szkopiak
- Geoff Lawson
- Jan Younger
- Richard Banks
- Script Consultant/Additional Material
- Ian David Diaz
- Camera Operators
- Niels Reedtz Johansen
- Phil Stein
- 2nd Unit:
- Alan Dunlop
- Cliff Harden
- Steen Brix Eriksen
- Steadicam Operator
- Stuart Howell
- Art Directors
- Lucy Savage
- Nick Frew
- Set Decorator
- Alison Gartshore
- Costume Designers
- Anabel Campbell
- Silvana Sacco
- Make-up/Hair Designers
- Simone Vollmer
- Alexis Turner
- Annette Bragas
- Titles
- Spectra Titles
- Opening Credit Sequence
- Piotr Szkopiak
- Additional Polish Music
- Jurek Pockert
- Violin Solos
- Martin Bell
- Sebastian Rudnicki
- Michael Jones
- Music Supervisors
- David Alldridge
- Craig Blake-Jones
- Soundtrack
- "Show Me" - Dexy's Midnight Runners;
- "Losing Control" - Nugget; "Middleman" - Dust Junkys;
- "Ideal Man" - The Famous Five; "Snow Shoes" - Hackney FiveO; "World at Your Feet", "Someone I Should Love" - Astrid; "The Matchstick Girl" - Jurek Pockert; "Calling You" - The Paradise Motel
- Sound Recordist
- John Carr
- Re-recording Mixers
- Peter Hodges
- Chris Trussler
- Sound Editors
- Afshin Tirabady
- Peter Hodges
- Foley
- Artists:
- Brian Blamey
- Andie Derrick
- Greyhound Trainer
- Johanna Beumer
- Stunts/Action Sequences
- Chaos Encounter
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Dave Judge
- Cast
- Alex King
- Michael
- Juliette Caton
- Ali
- Jason Merrells
- Chris
- Oliver Young
- Steve
- Richard Banks
- John
- Kirsten Parker
- Jackie
- Geoff Lawson
- Geordie
- Giles Ward
- Pope
- Jurek Jarosz
- Mr Korczynski
- Teresa Nowakowska
- Mrs Korczynski
- Andrew Tiernan
- Mr Page
- Leonard Trusty
- Garvey
- Danny Bowers
- Mark
- Elly Fairman
- Lucy
- Esme Eliot
- Lisa
- Danny Peacock
- unfortunate man
- Danusia Mnichniewicz
- John's mother
- Rocky Rising
- detective
- Simon Merrells
- racing manager
- Gary Hailes
- cab driver
- Mark Sloper
- van driver
- Paul Coyte
- Freddy
- Julian Boote
- Jez
- Andrzej Rumistrzewicz
- Polish doorman
- Ediz Mahmut
- Michael Jr
- Daniella Byrne
- baby Zuzanna
- Dave Judge
- John Ryder
- Andy Nok
- henchmen
- Larry Broderick
- Mr Page's driver
- Scott Kerr
- young man with videos
- Louise Melotte
- sexy girl
- Kathryn Gray
- nurse
- Adam Baker
- groundsman
- Sarah Kaldor
- young lady at wedding
- Andrew Nowakowski
- Nick Frew
- barmen
- John Ryder
- George Channel
- Christopher Ford
- customs officers
- Ian David Diaz
- drunken man
- Robin Harris
- car driver
- Foxy
- Bullitt
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- Guerilla Films
- 10,698 feet
- 118 minutes 52 seconds
- DTS Stereo
- In Colour