Film Review: The Festival

"I Just Want To Go Home, Have A Proper Shower And A Poo..."

Whilst the huge success of The Inbetweeners television series brought national fame in abundance to the show's leading four stars and is undoubtedly still a show which can be watched time and time again without wearing out, the transition from small screen to the cinema in the two feature length movies which followed ultimately failed to adhere to the same level of consistency which was evident in the series. Returning to similar roots once again, director Iain Morris, one of the co-creators of The Inbetweeners, re-unites with Joe Thomas in The Festival, a similarly crude, coming-of-age and undeniably British comedy which utilises the backdrop of the UK's muddy festival scene for rampart teenage mischievousness and absurd cringe-laden set pieces, and whilst Morris' latest does indeed suffer at times from a similar effect to The Inbetweeners movies by being a feature length film which stretches its' central idea a little too far and may have benefited more by remaining on the small screen, is still a thoroughly charming and exceedingly funny one hundred minutes spent in the company of talented actors who know how to present the trials and tribulations of youth in the best way possible. 

With Thomas essentially playing a lesser gelled incarnation of his character from The Inbetweeners in the form of Nick, a recently dumped, awkward graduate whose path to redemption comes in the form of a trip to an un-named festival alongside best friend, Hammed Animashaun's (Black Mirror) in an attempt to cure him of his newly found romantic blues, the opening exchanges of the movie play in a very familiar fashion, evidenced with the added inclusion of Hannah Tointon (The Inbetweeners) as Nick's love interest, with rather inappropriate sexual and bodily fluid gags all resulting in the sense of embarrassment audiences felt watching similar events on The Inbetweeners the first time around. As soon as the action begins to unfold in the titular wasteland of illegal drugs, annoying kooky campers and bass-drive music however, the scenario slightly changes for the better, adding in familiar feelings of bohemian peril for those privy to the ways and means of like-minded festivals which result in a wide range of laugh-out loud situations which are boosted by the natural chemistry between the fictional friendship between Thomas and Animashaun. When the movie does eventually begin to falter around the hour mark, resulting in a concluding forty minutes which lessen on the hit-rate of jokes and focus instead on more of a redemptive arc for the leading duo, the narrative weaknesses do unfortunately rear their heads, but thanks to the willingness of the film's leading stars to show their private parts and be thrown in mud when asked on cue, The Festival is the ideal partner to kick off the annual summer delights of warm cider and sweaty teenagers. 

Overall Score: 6/10