In its 1 hour 41-minute runtime, Calibre, this year’s best British feature at Edinburgh film festival. Their guilt, angst and helplessness are magnified against the backdrop of an economically stagnant Scottish countryside where the locals are the law of the land. That about the unfortunate choices Vaughn and his friend, Marcus (Martin McCann), make after a mind-numbing mishap. Writer-director Matt Palmer’s Calibre, now streaming on Netflix, dwells on the premise of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, and transcends into a grim tale. He must have been lost in the puzzle that begins during a nightmarish Highland deerstalking trip. When Vaughn (Jack Lowden), cradling his newborn child, stares chillingly at the camera for a few seconds. In the end it’s all about the choices that make or break a person. Until the web of deceit becomes a tangle that’s impossible to escape. Above all, it’s an absorbing, gripping story that shows, quiet convincingly, how one horrible mistake can lead to another.
So be prepared for a movie that rewards patience and a close attention to small details.Ĭalibre’s moments of outright violence are sparing yet pack a hefty punch. Anyone expecting a thriller packed with gore and mayhem will be disappointed. Calibre is a terrific drama-thriller about suspicion and gnawing guilt. Told with a brutal efficiency that makes the most of its low budget. Where we’re unsure of who knows what about whom, positively hums with quiet menace. Running at a lean 100 minutes, Palmer’s film gives us the measure of these characters in a short scene or two: one particular sequence in a busy pub. While Ian Pirie is flat-out scary as his older, more intimidating brother. Tony Curran, meanwhile, is equally good as one of the pillars of the village community. Lowden and McCann are difficult to fault as the two leads – particularly as they grow increasingly haunted and cornered by their own misdeeds. Gradually, Vaughn and Marcus’ character flaws are laid bare, from the former’s easy-going tendency to cave into the wild ideas of his friend, to Marcus’ appetite for drink and drugs at the same time, we see how an increasingly impoverished part of rural Scotland reacts when a pair of wealthy out-of-towners start disrupting their way of life.
In his debut feature, Palmer confidently balances our sympathies, between the two leads – who in essence are anti-heroes at best – and the assorted beer drinkers, farmers and hunters who make up the supporting cast. Thereafter, Calibre takes on a vaguely Kafka-esque air, as Vaughn and Marcus try to hide the fallout of their fateful trip to the woods from the locals. Without spoiling things, it’s probably sufficient to say that the expedition doesn’t quite pan out as expected. Calbre sees two old friends, the quiet, unassuming Vaughn (Jack Lowden) and his wealthier, more outgoing Marcus (Martin McCann) head to the wilds of Scotland on a hunting trip.Īrmed with a pair of rifles and a hip flask of whisky, their plan is to shoot a deer or two and spend their evenings drinking in a village pub. Instead, Calibre has more in common with something like John Boorman’s Deliverance: difficult to pigeonhole neatly in one genre, but subtly disturbing all the same. With its opening shots of a Highland forest in autumn, Calibre initially looks as though it might unfold along similar lines to a conventional modern horror like The Ritual – another British genre film released by Netflix. So goes one of several hugely effective scenes in writer-director Matt Palmer’s Calibre – an indie drama-thriller that quickly establishes its own line in low-key suspense. The colour red weighs heavily on Vaughn’s guilt-ridden mind, and all he can think about is escape. Red wine pouring into a glass crimson blood oozing from a slab of barely-cooked venison on a dinner plateĭark red paint all over the dining room walls.
That’s a mixed blessing for a film that certainly deserves the broad exposure of international streaming.īut whose natural habitat is the midnight-movie circuit: Its jackknife shocks, clammy atmospherics and head-filling soundscape would best be enjoyed (or at least endured, at its most palpitating moments) in the immersive darkness of a cinema. That is, if smart genre fiends seek out Matt Palmer’s majorly promising debut feature on Netflix - where it’s set to bow globally on June 29, just one week after its home-turf premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival. But getting out of the woods isn’t even close to getting in the clear in “ Calibre,” a sensationally well-executed nerve-mangler that ought to do for the majestic Scottish Highlands what “Deliverance” did for Appalachia. A lads’ hunting weekend begins with beers and banter, only to swiftly sober up when two Edinburgh townies wind up shooting entirely the wrong prey.
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