Yikes, but this is a depressingly bleak story. David Thewlis is a rather dissolute and violent Mancunian who arrives in London with nowhere to stay. "Johnny" makes his way to the home of his ex "Louise" (Lesley Sharp). They briefly hook up again, but he soon tires of what he can get on a plate and sets off back onto the streets for a series of encounters with the nocturnal types who inhabit the city and provide us with a series of quirky short stories. Whilst "Johnny" is out philandering, "Louise" and her flatmate "Sophie" (Catrin Cartlidge) are being bullied by their landlord - the sadistic "Jeremy" (Greg Crutwell) who takes sexual brutality to an whole new level. In the end, the streets take their revenge on "Johnny" and he must return to her home where things finally come to some sort of an head. It's got something of the observational documentary to it this. The style of photography allies well with the angry (and ripe) but sometimes quite potent dialogue to create a cast of characters that vacillate between the obnoxious and the needy, the violent and even the loving - in a perverse sort of fashion. Thewlis is on great form, as is the rather unpleasant Cruttwell who spends much of the film in his underpants exuding a menace that ought not work so well - he's a small and underwhelming man - but it does. Lesley Sharp also works well, though quite what she'd ever have seen in the scrawny and odious "Johnny" is anyone's guess. That's ultimately maybe what makes this film rise above the grottiness of it's grittiness. It's not a nice film to watch, nor do I think it has any profound or telling underlying message to impart - but it is worth a watch.
