An oddly dream-like variant on British working-class realism, this atmospheric first feature turns Norfolk into something between the American deep south and northern France (the latter because of faint overtones of Bruno Dumont). Angular newcomer Liam Walpole plays teenager Goob, who spends the summer working on a pumpkin farm and running foul of the belligerent boyfriend (Sean Harris) of his put-upon mum (Sienna Guillory). The Goob is less about linear narrative than presenting a fragmentary drift of events and a spirit of place that’s deeply claustrophobic. Walpole’s fragile, oddly absent manner can’t quite match Harris’s evil-eyed intensity when it comes to holding the attention, but there’s an arresting turn by another newcomer, Oliver Kennedy, as a defiantly camp co-worker. Simon Tindall’s photography has a haunting distinction.
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