This is my second viewing of The Goob since it premiered at the Venice film festival last year, and the film has grown in my mind: a really intelligent essay in classic Brit social realism, well-acted and beautifully photographed by cinematographer Simon Tindall. On first acquaintance, I expressed reservations about originality, but these hesitations have been cancelled by this film’s fiercely atmospheric drama, and its evocation of the East Anglian landscape, capturing not merely the traditional sense of its endless level desolation, but also the way its huge skies are paradoxically enclosing and imprisoning. Newcomer Liam Walpole plays open-faced Goob, a school-leaver with absolutely no idea what to do with the rest of his life: his mum (Sienna Guillory) is being badly treated by her bullying, abusive partner, Gene (Sean Harris), who is forced to tolerate Goob but suspects a dumb insolence in his attitude. Further tensions arise with the young transient workers who Gene has hired for his beet farm, and the long, hot summer simmers up to boiling point. The Goob inhabits the location with confidence and a shrewd sense of place. An impressive feature debut for director Guy Myhill.
