Paul W. S. Anderson is an enigma to me. When you listen to him talk about films or games he comes off as quite knowledgeable, curious and self-reflective, yet he's made nothing but terrible schlock throughout the entirety of his career. Sometimes he makes an accidentally good film like Event Horizon or Alien vs Predator but the limits of his imagination and skill are painfully apparent even in the best of his work, and borderline cringeworthy in his worst, see M for Mortal Kombat or Monster Hunter.
Shopping was his debut film, which while receiving mixed reviews became somewhat of a cult hit in the UK upon release and helped usher in a new wave of british cinema. In hindsight, without the success of Shopping we might not have gotten the careers of Danny Boyle or Guy Ritchie (ok , that sounds like a mixed blessing).
Wait, what? Paul W. S. Anderson is british?!
The strangest epiphany other than the fact he can direct when he wants to, is that he's actually british, which was so surprising to me since none of his usual films have the humour, inventiveness or bite you get from the other british filmmakers of this era. Shopping is this fascinating anomaly in his career, a visually inventive cool little indie action film, inhabited by some of the greatest accents of the island, driven forward by a temporary electronica soundtrack. The cast includes an array of later Anderson regulars in a rare display of their native lingo, several well-known brits of the time in small parts and the feature film debut of Jude Law who shockingly is the worst actor in the film. I genuinely like him, but at this point he had so much left to learn it's not even funny.
The scenery is one of the stars, making use of a couple of famous London brutalist landmarks, a style of architecture which had already lent Clockwork Orange it's slightly futuristic dystopian touch. While the low budget is apparent, Anderson is smart enough to shoot around it, so it never becomes a distraction.
The story isn't the movie's strongest suit ultimately running a bit too long. Maybe a more well-versed lead might have carried it better, but a lot of time is spent on plotlines that could have been dealt with much quicker and more elegantly. This isn't a high concept thriller. It's a rather simple fictional portray of a disenchanted youth culture always in search of more extreme thrills which leads to crime, carnage and casualties. An entire clique of rebels without a cause. The movie does tap a little bit into contemporary british subcultures which makes it an interesting watch as a time capsule of the mid-nineties. What lay buried in the shadow of britpop.
It's not necessarily a great film by any means, it has these moments of imitation and lack of experience that hold down most debut films, but it shows Paul W. S. Anderson once briefly had his finger on the pulse of the times instead of desperately chasing after it, and it's a riveting look into an alternate timeline where instead of moving to Hollywood, he decided to hone his craft at home, polish his skills and vision and emerge a unique filmmaker with his own style instead of the unoriginal repetitive junk he's been cluttering up theatres with for the last 27 years.
Shopping was his debut film, which while receiving mixed reviews became somewhat of a cult hit in the UK upon release and helped usher in a new wave of british cinema. In hindsight, without the success of Shopping we might not have gotten the careers of Danny Boyle or Guy Ritchie (ok , that sounds like a mixed blessing).
Wait, what? Paul W. S. Anderson is british?!
The strangest epiphany other than the fact he can direct when he wants to, is that he's actually british, which was so surprising to me since none of his usual films have the humour, inventiveness or bite you get from the other british filmmakers of this era. Shopping is this fascinating anomaly in his career, a visually inventive cool little indie action film, inhabited by some of the greatest accents of the island, driven forward by a temporary electronica soundtrack. The cast includes an array of later Anderson regulars in a rare display of their native lingo, several well-known brits of the time in small parts and the feature film debut of Jude Law who shockingly is the worst actor in the film. I genuinely like him, but at this point he had so much left to learn it's not even funny.
The scenery is one of the stars, making use of a couple of famous London brutalist landmarks, a style of architecture which had already lent Clockwork Orange it's slightly futuristic dystopian touch. While the low budget is apparent, Anderson is smart enough to shoot around it, so it never becomes a distraction.
The story isn't the movie's strongest suit ultimately running a bit too long. Maybe a more well-versed lead might have carried it better, but a lot of time is spent on plotlines that could have been dealt with much quicker and more elegantly. This isn't a high concept thriller. It's a rather simple fictional portray of a disenchanted youth culture always in search of more extreme thrills which leads to crime, carnage and casualties. An entire clique of rebels without a cause. The movie does tap a little bit into contemporary british subcultures which makes it an interesting watch as a time capsule of the mid-nineties. What lay buried in the shadow of britpop.
It's not necessarily a great film by any means, it has these moments of imitation and lack of experience that hold down most debut films, but it shows Paul W. S. Anderson once briefly had his finger on the pulse of the times instead of desperately chasing after it, and it's a riveting look into an alternate timeline where instead of moving to Hollywood, he decided to hone his craft at home, polish his skills and vision and emerge a unique filmmaker with his own style instead of the unoriginal repetitive junk he's been cluttering up theatres with for the last 27 years.