Marcus Hu and Jon Gerrans’ two plus decade label Strand Releasing have been positioning as their usual ballsy auteur label not afraid of picking up difficult films and I’d say in the past 24 months they come across as a label working with the same spirit but with a lot more leverage. They collected a handful from Cannes, including the Camera D’or winning film (Leap Year) and the Palme d’or winning film (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives) and now they’ve picked up one of the better offerings from Sundance in Paddy Considine’s feature directing debut. Tyrannosaur looks destined for a release within the next six months and should be a title that brings in some acting accolades.
Gist: Based on a portion of the storyline and characters found in Considine’s short film, this tells the story of Joseph (Peter Mullan), a man who is plagued by a violence and rage that is driving him to self destruction. As he falls further into turmoil Joseph scours the landscape in search of a single grain of redemption that might restore hope to his fractured life. He meets Hannah, a Christian charity shop worker (Colman). Their relationship develops to reveal that Hannah is hiding a secret of her own that has devastating results on both their lives.
Worth Noting: Dog Altogether won the Best Short Film BAFTA and BIFA awards as well as the Silver Lion award at Venice in 2007.
Do We Care?: Both Sean Glass and I were big on the film — with Sean highlighting (see review) that “what holds the film together beyond any of the loose character development is the acting. When you walk into a film written and directed by Paddy Considine, even if you don’t know the cast, you expect dynamic performances and these actors are all as good as they come. Mullan brings the intensity of previous film roles dating back to his work with Ken Loach and more recently, with the Red Riding trilogy. Here he adds another layer of tenderness.”
