Down Terrace

Father and son Bill and Karl (real life father and son Bob and Robin Hill) have just been released from jail free and clear, but all is not well at Down Terrace. Patriarchs of a small crime family, their business is plagued with infighting. Karl has had more than he can take of his old man's philosophizing and preaching, and Bill thinks Karl's dedication to the family is seriously compromised when he takes up with an estranged girlfriend who claims to be carrying his baby. To make matters worse, there’s an unidentified informant in their midst that could send them all to prison for a very long time, and none of their associates can be trusted.

The feature film debut of writer/director Ben Wheatley, co-written by star Robin Hill, DOWN TERRACE is a darkly funny work of social surrealism, described in the press as “The Sopranos” if imagined by Mike Leigh or Ken Loach. Produced by Andrew Starke of Boum Productions, and executive produced by Baby Cow Films, Steve Coogan and Henry Normal’s production company (“24 Hour Party People,” “The Mighty Boosh”), the film features stars of such beloved British TV shows as “Spaced,” “The Office” and “Extras.”

“An audacious balancing act, by turns shocking and comical, but the outlandish story does boast several naturalistic performances.” (Terry Staunton, Radio Times)

“Hilarious, shocking and weirdly plausible.” (Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph)“Ever since Ben Wheatley’s feature debut started shouldering its way through the festival circuit, his lo-fi Brit-crime tale has repeatedly earned the same complimentary comparison: “It’s The Sopranos meets Mike Leigh.” Granted, the film’s ability to make you feel as if you’re having a cuppa with working-class punters is straight out of the Vera Drake director’s handbook, and the suburban criminal clan’s microempire shares similarities with the HBO show’s famiglia business. But the differences are what’s key: Leigh’s slices of life rarely, if ever, use genre trappings to achieve such tense, terse frisson. And David Chase’s series detailed how the outside world breaks down the family unit; this muted mobster story reminds us that the ties that bind can also gag you, garrote you and slowly deaden your soul.

“Never mind the Italian-American Cosa Nostra dramatics and U.K. kitchen-sink elements; Down Terrace’s real ancestry is Greek tragedy. Dad (Robert Hill) is less worried about the rat in his Brighton-based organization than what impending fatherhood will do to his sociopathic second-in-command son (cowriter Robin Hill). Mom (Deakin, phenomenal) spends as much time undermining her boy’s pregnant girlfriend as she does plotting power plays, Lady Macbeth–style. Implosion is imminent, and not even the blackly comic interludes featuring the mocking of homicidal dimwits—call it “Coen-descension”—dull the caustic bite once the movie starts putting the blood into blood relations. Wheatley has mastered playing disparate styles off of each other, but more important, he understands how kin can be both sustaining and smothering—and how to tell an age-old story in a manner that’s not only stunning, but sui generis. Four stars.” (David Fear, TimeOut New York)

“Bracing and vibrantly alive.” (Kevin Thomas, L.A. Times) Go here for the full review: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/reviews/la-et-down-terrace-review,0,6983016.story