Raya Films (aka writer/director/producer/DP James Smith and writer/producer/actress Caroline Spence) are back at it, following up on their micro-budget thriller Casting Kill from this past January with a feel-good comedy entitled Best Geezer. It recently made its world premiere at the Southend-on-Sea Film Festival in Essex, where the film was shot and set, and it will be making its London debut on July 28th. As you may have gleaned, Best Geezer is a British film, and so I’d like to briefly clarify for my American readers that “geezer” has a different meaning across the pond. It’s used similarly to how we might deploy “dude” but it can also mean a gangster or, perhaps more appropriately, “wiseguy.” With that out of the way, let’s take a look!
Three working-class guys from sleepy Canvey Island have big dreams. Billy (Ryan Enever) wants to get out from under the thumb of his asshole boss (Stephen McDade) while also proving to his wife, Sue (Samantha Anderson) that he can make something of himself. When he comes up with the idea of transitioning their corporate video business into a low-budget movie production studio, rough around the edges Neil (Darren Tassell) is tasked with coming up with the requisite funding. Happy-go-lucky Dave (Philip Andrew Rogers) is eager to help his buddies however he can.
The trio hatches a plan to make a geezer movie after reading about the success of Jed Smith (Michael Ross), a local actor who has found great success in the crime film genre. The journey from idea conception to the completed film is a rocky one, but their belief in each other carries them through. Along the way, we meet many colorful characters. My favorites include shady businessman Big J (David Streames), posh writer Barclay Jolly (Ian Renshaw), velvet-voiced deejay Keith (James Hamer-Morton), no-nonsense underworld figure Figgy (Terry Bamberger), and Spence as Neil’s assertively deadpan and vaguely threatening ex, Zoranda.
Spence and Smith’s script leans into character work, as alluded to above. The focus is on Billy and Neil, but Dave and Sue figure prominently. It reminded me of Guy Ritchie’s early films with their large casts of bizarre yet believable folks hovering around a plot that revels in matter-of-fact absurdity. There’s a certain looseness to the narrative that belies a solid structure. What I mean is the film never loses momentum over its nearly two-hour runtime even as it takes little detours to deliver character beats. Much of the comedy is derived from the hapless nature of the leads, but the movie is never mean-spirited. On the contrary, the tone is deliberately uplifting in spite of the friends’ various troubles. It’s unabashedly wish-fulfillment cinema that fits right in with the recent kindcore movement. I also want to note that it seems to be a period piece in that we’re operating in a timeframe where flip phones and print media are still prominent. In some ways, that makes the film feel almost ahistorical, though.
The writing can’t take all the credit for the funny stuff, though. Smith’s lensing has some comedic timing of its own. He knows just how to frame incredulous reaction shots and how long to linger on silent moments to elicit chuckles. His storytelling is clear and utilizes many different kinds of shots to make sure the viewing experience is never stale. Locations and sets effortlessly create a lived-in world for our characters to inhabit. In particular, Zoranda’s house and the pub where Billy and Sue's work deliver some flavor to the proceedings. I’ve never been to Canvey Island, but I certainly got a sense of its general culture and vibe from Smith’s visuals.
Enever, Tassell, and Anderson’s performances do most of the heavy lifting with admirable and grounded work. For me, Tassell probably shines the most, as I feel the picture turns on his character’s heartfelt outlook. In contrast, the bevy of quirky supporting characters are allowed to go a little bigger and the fission between these two approaches generates laughs. Neil’s interactions with Zoranda are my favorite example of this method. Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention composer Shaun Finnegan’s contribution to those scenes, as his ominous music leading up to those encounters had me howling.
James Smith’s Best Geezer is a lighthearted dramedy overflowing with unusual players and low-budget pluck. It completely rejects cynicism as it commits to its follow-your-heart ethos. Though undoubtedly wholesome, keep in mind that our heroes are making a cockney gangster film, and so there is plenty of swearing, often delivered with a ferocious snarl in the movie within the movie, Kick Your Head In. Fans of Ted Lasso, Snatch, American Movie, and Zack and Miri Make a Porno should find plenty to enjoy here. Look for it to arrive on Amazon Prime in the near future.
Michael Cavender