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★★★
Written and Directed by: #GerardLough
Starring: #MichaelParle, #JackDeanShepard, #ClaireBlennerhassett, #AidanOSullivan and #EoinLeahy
Film review by: Brian Penn
Night People Movie Review
In football parlance Night People is a film of two halves. Mike (Michael Parle) and Luke (Jack Dean Shepard) are lugubrious criminals who enter a house to perpetrate an insurance scam. They have an hour to kill before an accomplice disables CCTV systems; so they each tell a fanciful tale about night people; misfits who occupy the same twilight world as them.
Mike relates the story of two friends; Robert (Aidan O’ Sullivan) is a chancer who has stumbled across a device that appears to have mystical powers. He shows it to Adam (Eoin Leahy) a geek who lives in his dressing gown. Robert is convinced they can make serious money from it but Adam is not so sure and wants to thoroughly test it. Luke is incredulous and tells his own story of Faustina (Claire Blennerhassett), an ambitious business woman who provides a dating agency for wealthy fetishists. Bored with the routine bondage crew she decides to branch into an entirely new area where clients have very special needs.
The basic premise of crooks waiting to do the honours quickly makes way for two separate stories representing genres linked by a common theme. The fetish story is strongest with Claire Blennerhassett’s deadpan delivery giving the narrative an understated comic edge. The mystical device eventually catches up with Mike and Luke but produces a climax that is both confusing and unexpected. It’s choppy, uneven storytelling but there’s definitely something about the characters and the way they interact with each other. An excellent Miami Vice style soundtrack keeps the atmosphere bubbling away, adding an interesting dimension to the visuals; a solid three act story that just needs to be tightened up.
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