Crappy film

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

I'm usually not really a fan of these slick, sick British crime thrillers that are invariably full of thuggery and profanity in equal measure, but HYENA turns out to be something special. It's a blacker-than-black tale of a thuggish cop (played well by the unknown Peter Ferdinando) who finds himself embroiled in a plot involving some very nasty characters indeed. The film opens with a shocking scene of violence and continues to shock from that point onward. It's bleak and nasty yet it somehow keeps you watching, almost like a gruesome car wreck on the motorway. Stephen Graham and the other cast members put in authentic performances and the film hits really hard in much the same way as an early Nicolas Winding Refn movie.

"Hyena" is a punishingly bleak, violent trudge through a London underworld of sex traffickers, drug dealers, rapists, gangsters, and police who are indiscernible from them. It's the kind of thing that makes you feel dirty. It reminded me a little of that Aussie flick, "Snowtown", except that had a reason for existing, other than just the dubious pleasure of wallowing in the mire.Its protagonist is a crooked cop who cooperates, a little too helpfully, with gangsters involved in the traffic of sex slaves from the Balkans. At some point he may decide to redeem himself - or does he? It could be that that's just a cliché for movies like this, so we expect it, a la "Bad Lieutenant". He does try to help one of the sex slaves escape, but for the rest of the movie he is really just acting in his own interest.The movie doesn't bring you close enough to the character to make him interesting like in that movie, though, or other gritty character studies like "Pusher", or of course, the daddy of them all, "Taxi Driver". He's just another scum bag. If there is goodness in him, that makes him worse than the others. They don't know any better.The movie is continually violent and shocking, with dismemberments, decapitated heads, graphic rapes. It doesn't feel realistic or necessary. This movie is like a deliberately sick carnival ride going from one grotesque exhibition to the next. When it's over, the challenge is answered and you can get on with your day. It might shock you while it's happening but you won't be thinking about it for long afterwards.

Review: If you're fresh from watching other shoe-string, budget films from auteur-directors such as Loach, Leigh or Meadows, you can may be disappointed by Hyena's lack of depth, knowledge of film-theory, and its inability to push the calibre of actors (such as Stephen Graham) to their potential. Nevertheless, the narrative is gripping and the film quickly drags you to hell with it. Unrecognisable from his Nielson-esque portrayal in 'Tony'; Ferdinando's portrayal of bent-copper Michael is hugely exciting. The actor has a screen-presence that forgives some of the clumsier plot-devices and line-delivery, which often detract from the films strengths. Like Cimino and Cassavetes, the excellent use and direction of non- actors (mainly in the form of the Albanian-mafioso, antagonists), added the extra-dimension which 'Hyena' may have lacked otherwise. Elisa Lasowski's performance is also superb throughout.In terms of content, 'Hyena' should be commended for its unflinching look at the realities of modern London; policing, immigration and human trafficking. Equally in terms of form; for its long-takes, use of improvisation, realism, use of non-actors, powerful narrative and performances. Much like in 'Tony', Johnson's thematic and aesthetic portrayal of big-city isolation, alienation, paranoia and nihilism through a dirty glass is palpable; and should be commended. Both 'Tony' and 'Hyena' should have been given a lot more PR on its release, as well as the praise they deserves for its bravery and unflinching glance at a very modern London.

The following review is going to be quite negative; something I don't like doing, but in this case it's born out of frustration as the BFI, Film 4 and Tribecca are all behind 'Hyena' and it just makes me scream aloud WHY?! I'm clearly missing something. I know it's a low budget thriller and the fact any film gets made yet alone released is quite an achievement but seriously, why bother if there's nothing original to say or show when you aren't working under the overly regimented eye of a powerhouse studio? Director Gerard Johnson is also the screenwriter and this really needed a second stronger writer to edit it down and polish up some of the horrible or just too 'on-the-nose' dialogue that results in cliché. For a writer/director in his forties the script is very immature and the (visual) direction seems (probably intentionally) shot from the hip as 99% of it is hand-held close up or MCU work with countless shots following behind Gerard Butler lookalike Peter Ferdinando as he walks. Ferdinando here isn't a strong enough an actor to carry this, however his given dialogue could take a lot of the blame although many of his emotion and reaction shots look like the editor has cut in the bad takes. Mentioning the editing, the film has so much padding and could easily be relieved of a good 10 minutes from its over-long 112 minute running time. How many montage-style scenes were there of characters doing things (drinking and drug taking mostly) set to music that didn't really progress the plot? And what was with the male topless food fight? For a 'tough cop' movie there are a number of homo-erotic moments here that feel out of place. MyAnna Buring was there…. to collect a pay-check? Given NOTHING to do. The ending I won't talk about, although it doesn't work in this scenario. But then again I couldn't have cared less about any of the characters outcomes and the cut to black was in fact quite a relief. Sharing many of Ben Wheatley's regular cast members, director Johnson adapts a similar cinema verite-style as seen in 'Kill List' but overall it just feels like lazy filmmaking. As I say, I think I'm missing something. Or is mediocrity the new "it'll do"?