Film Reviews

Le Donk and Scor-zay-zee

• Rating:
• Director: Shane Meadows
• Starring: Paddy Considine
• Details: UK / 71mins (15A).

(Cut To The Chase: Mockumentaries aren't as innovative as they once were, but heart and humour never get old; director Shane Meadows (This Is England, Dead Man's Shoes) and actor Paddy Considine manage to find both in this comedy.
Le Donk and Scor-zay-zee sees a roadie/music manager with delusions of grandeur take his one client on the road to support The Arctic Monkeys at a one-off gig. Le Donk (Considine) is expecting to be a father any day now, but he's estranged from his girlfriend (Peep Show's Coleman), who is living with her new beau (Richard Graham). In an effort to impress her (or put one over on her new boyfriend - the movie can't make up its mind), Le Donk hopes that Scorz (O'Neill) will be the next big hip-hop star. Along for the ride is director Shane Meadows, hoping to catch the event in a fly-on-the-wall documentary.
Shot in five days, the first in a series of five day features devised by Meadows and Warp's Mark Hubert (who also plays himself here), Le Donk and Scor-zay-zee has a looseness one would expect from such an experiment. The plot is threadbare but Considine pulls it through, inhabiting the character the way Ricky Gervais lived and breathed David Brent. The Office comparisons don't stop there, as Le Donk has many Brent malapropisms - "I'm like Donnie Darko infiltrating the mafia" and "I was going to carve him up like a can of tuna." The Arctic Monkeys are referred to as The Article Monkeys. Like Brent, Le Donk is totally convinced of his genius despite his obvious lack of intelligence.
But can an improvised movie shot in five days, and comes in way under ninety minutes (the bare minimum these days), be recommended to movie lovers in a recession? I can say this: the low budget Le Donk… is funnier than recent big budget comedies.

Review by Gavin Burke