After his girlfriend dumps him at graduation, a young man thinks his life is over. His best friend has the perfect solution: three days at a giant music festival.
The Festival has only been out a day, however I can tell from just having the same makers as 'The Inbetweeners', that this film is really going to follow through and impress fans of the show, as well as general film fans alike. The film was also really interesting in the way in which it was marketed and as I sat down in the cinema to watch this film I was sure that it would either be really good or a mess. Which one was it? Here are my thoughts.
I think that the film was able to capture the main element from the inbetweeners that fans loved, by having a set of genuine, relatable and genuinely funny characters. This film seemed to execute these characteristics perfectly. Right from the beginning, there were plenty of laughs and positive reactions from the audience, from Nick and his unfortunate ejaculation timing, to us seeing him being sick on stage at his graduation. There were plenty of embarrassing moments that made for great comedy. The film started off really nicely and was able to really create a strong bond with the audience, it just really seemed to promote a really positive and energetic mood to the audience which was really well done through great dialogue, awesome cinematography and just genuinely likable characters. The film used a great variety of engaging dialogue throughout, it just seemed to really make the characters seem relatable to persuade the audience that they really were a bunch of average teenagers. The use of banter and jokes also really helped this, and what's better is that the jokes and banter felt realistic, they helped us to understand the types of relationships that the characters shared with each other and just generally made us laugh. This seemed to have a great effect of just somehow making every scene really funny and humorous, but the way in which the humour was executed was really cool as we as an audience really felt as if we were the 'extra person in the friendship group' and as if we really understood the jokes that were being thrown around. The great characters and relationships that they shared really helped this out too, this really linked to the characteristic of the film that I liked the most, that the film really took the audience on a journey and along the way, got us involved in the characters and their individual dilemmas that they shared. There really seemed to be an element of a genuine feel to the relationships and friendships in the film.
I also really liked the plot idea and the way in which emotions really helped to capture the audiences thoughts, there was a clear and fairly basic plot but what made it great was the characters and the emotions that were thrown at the audience. The plot was also really interesting and it was easy to understand due to the character switches around the festival. This had a really nice effect of keeping us updated with all of the fun things going on, and what was going wrong for Nick; but on the whole there didn't seem to be any points during the film where I was unsure of what was happening or how it linked to the bigger picture and this really helped the film to flow amazingly well. The solid structure of the plot was also strengthened by the commentary during some parts of the film, which helped us to understand what was happening, why it was, and the impact that it had - this basically just helped to clean up any confusions that the audience had. It was actually really helpful and established the scene and characters really nicely. But the best part of this film was not just the characters or plot, but the really enjoyable and entertaining scenes too, I would have a hard time picking them all out but some of the best include Nick's nipple piercing and it falling off (this was a really cringe part) and the chase between Nick and the police officer. It just added in the emotion of tension into the mixture and just really had a positive impact of creating a humorous and fairly slapstick section into the film, this chase was really helped by the cinematography. Lots of quick camera shots and pan camera angles really helped to immerse us within the chase and it even helped to add in a little bit of unpredictability which was nice and refreshing to see. But throughout the film these types of camera angles were used and they had a great impact, such as pan camera angles showing the 'train gang' going down the hill and panning over to a huge festival full of party-goers and groups of people, to the camera shots showing everyone dancing to 'Hammerhead'. The camera angles had a similarly positive effect, they really helped to immerse the audience within the location and to really make us feel as if we were actually there at the festival, it was a really great experience!
The film wasn't all good though, as with any comedy film there are always problems and issues that arise and this film is no different. The plot was clearly explained yes, but for me it just seemed to move and develop a little too quickly - characters seemed to really develop and change relationships too quickly which made some parts of the film fairly confusing as to why some characters were arguing or why they were suddenly friends again. It just made some elements of the film a little difficult to keep up with. This links well to some of the scenes feeling slightly irrelevant and led me to question as to why they were there - some of them helped to establish the characters personalities and relationships, but for some scenes, it just felt a little overdone where time could've been dedicated to helping the audience focus and understand another element of the film.
I was also a little disappointed with the humour in the film, it was really funny don't get me wrong! But some of the characters and jokes just seemed to be a little unfunny and they gave the impression that the creators of the film had tried too hard to make every character funny and important to the plot in some way. When this wasn't actually needed as we had a perfectly enjoyable group of teenagers anyway. Another issue that I had with the film is actually fairly vague, it didn't really seem to wow me or have the impact or effect that really lasted with me after leaving the cinema that the best films have - I understand that this may not be the point of a comedy but I'm not overly impressed that the only thing I can think of related to the film is Nick's severed nipple on the fence. Needless to say I cringe every time I see it!! The film seemed to have some other issues with its humour too, many of the jokes seemed to be have been taken straight from the inbetweeners - which isn't bad as they're very funny, but it just seemed to ruin a little bit of authenticity and slightly lower the enjoy ability factor to the film - as some of the jokes just didn't feel fresh and instead they felt overused. But on the whole it was a very funny film so I can't slate the jokes too much.
Overall, I would give this film an 8. It provided the audience with plenty of laughs, a group of really relatable, enjoyable and genuine feeling characters which really helped to make the film fresh and exciting. The film also had a really interesting and well executed plot, with plenty of side stories and interesting conversations between characters that really made the film enjoyable and definitely helped it to live up to its category of a comedy. But there were a few issues with the film that seemed to hinder it's rating, I couldn't help but feel that the producers just tried a little too hard to make everyone funny, instead of leaving it to the main characters which would've been much better. Some of the scenes felt a little irrelevant and led me to question why they were there. But if you're into festivals, the inbetweeners or just good, fun and enjoyable comedies, then this film will definitely not let you down!
Thank you for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing this review and watching the film. I hope you have a lovely day. :)
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