Wednesdays are usually pretty quite on the film front, but luckily Will Jewell’s ensemble thriller Concrete Plans is finally getting its UK TV premiere on Film4 tonight at 9pm, so that Wednesday night has just been filled up. You. Are Welcome.
Concrete Plans has taken over five years to get to the screen and it had the misfortune of having its UK cinema release curtailed by lockdowns, so the fact it is getting its TV premiere is fantastic thing. This festival favourite has been winning quite a few awards over the past year (Best Film and Best Director at the Seattle Film Festival.
If you remember I was able to review Concrete Plans way back in November 2020 (here) and was thoroughly impressed by the film that had far more layers than you would expect in an indie thriller and marks Jewell as a filmmaker to keep an eye on as he has a lot of promise.
Concrete Plans is primarily a Thriller with dashes of Social Realism and even Spaghetti Western stylings, concerning a ragtag group of builders who are ripped off whilst renovating a remote farmhouse. Backed by Film Wales and its cast includes James Lance (Ted Lasso), Amber Rose Revah (The Punisher), Charley Palmer Rothwell (Looted), Goran Bogdan (Fargo), Steve Speirs (Extras), William Thomas (Twin Town) and Chris Reilly (Wrath of Man) and has an electrifying score by Paul Hartnoll of Orbital that fuses pastoral folk horror influences with electronica to dizzying effect.
This claustrophobic film utilises its cast to perfection and is certainly a film that deserves to be seen by a wide audience. So do not make the mistake of missing it and catch it tonight, though if for some reason you are busy it will be on Film4 for a month, so little excuses!
Concrete Plans is distributed in the UK by Signature and in the US by Dark Sky.
