Free Fire

Dir: Ben Wheatley

2017

****

I’ve read very little about Free Fire since its release. In early 2017 the film’s awesome poster was released and its brilliant trailer was shown everywhere, then nothing. My local cinema didn’t show it, in fact, very few cinemas showed it, which really annoyed me as all the cinemas I go to boast how they are committed to supporting home-grown film etc, and yet a film made just over a hundred miles away is totally ignored. Everyone knows Ben Wheatley is one of the most exciting British directors working today, I’m not sure how well all his previous films have been distributed but 2016’s High Rise enjoyed global praise and 2012’s Sightseers has already reached cult status. People should have been excited about Free Fire, I think those that heard of it probably were, but that wasn’t nearly enough. It’s a great film, one of the year’s best but literally no one is talking about it. It’s a great shame that the distribution rights that went from StudioCanal, to Sony, to Alchemy and finally to A24. I have big love for A24 but they’re relatively young and Free Fire only reached a few cinemas. I believe it is as good as Baby Driver and better than Lucky Logan, two films that certainly had more than their fair share of the 2017 limelight. The premise is gloriously simple: It is 1978, a group of four IRA members meet outside a warehouse beside a dock somewhere in Boston. They’re there to buy guns from an arms dealer with a couple of mediators in there to make sure everything goes smoothly. Cillian Murphy and Ben Wheatly regular Michael Smiley lead the IRA group, with a drugged up Stevo (Sam Riley) and Bernie (Enzo Cilenti) acting as bag men/heavies. Armie Hammer is the smooth-talking mediator and Brie Larson is the IRA intermediary. They take the four men into the warehouse to meet Vernon, a flamboyant and irritable arms dealer who never quite got over the revelation that his child-prodigy status was officially found to be misdiagnosed. Vernon is played by the brilliant Sharlto Copley who is on fine form, a much better choice in my opinion than Luke Evens who was cast in the role originally. He is partnered with Martin (played by Babou Ceesay) and supported by stooges Harry and Gordon (played by Jack Reynor and Noah Taylor respectively). The exchange doesn’t start well when the wrong guns are brought by Vernon and each player finds something unlikable about their counterpart. When Harry recognises Stevo as being the man who assaulted his cousin the previous evening, the meeting goes pear-shaped and soon enough everyone is shooting at each other. Wheatly set the film in the 70s largely so that technology wouldn’t interfere in the situation and in the character’s isolation. They are trapped in the warehouse and the only way out is to shoot their way out. The 1970s also gave Wheatley the opportunity to pimp up the film and have a bit of fun. The characters wear leather jackets and sharp suits, they look authentic but aren’t over the top. The cast is largely English and Irish but everyone but the IRA characters lay on their best Boston accent. It’s like watching kids playing shoot-out in the school playing grounds but with a million dollar budget. It’s so much fun you want to be part of it. Everyone is on level pegging, everyone gets shot and no one is safe from anyone form either team. The best thing about it is the absurd realism. We’re so used to watching films whereby our hero gets shot but still runs about, jumping from helicopters and climbing skyscrapers. The Free Fire characters get shot in the leg and have to crawl. Intense shoot-outs are paused as participants temporarily pass out and resume once they come round a few minutes later. The film’s one and only car chase is under five miles an hour, it’s ridiculous but still ends in spectacular style. It rare that you have so much fun watching other people having so much fun. Each actor plays their character straight but Free Fire is 100% comedy. It is gory, intense and fairly horrific in places but irresistibly funny. I’m sure there are many directors out there who saw it and are angry at themselves for not thinking of it first. It seriously should be a film everyone was talking about, it wasn’t, so I can only assume it will become a future cult classic. It is also refreshing to learn that the actors did their own stunts. I noticed the glorious absence of CGI but it is shocking seeing the actors do some of the things they do in the film, it goes to show there was a level of respect and enthusiasm there for Wheatley and his film and I would argue that it is a beautiful rarity.