Jackdaw

Set in the North East and featuring brothers Jack and Simon Dawson (Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Leon Harrop respectively) and lots of shotguns and local villains there’s a whiff of 1970’s British gangster film about Jackdaw.

And that remains for most of the film but writer and director Jamie Childs’ fantastic use of the industrial area and in particular the refinery lighting at night provide it with a contemporary base solidified by the synth, dance and ambient soundtrack by Si Begg and Deadly Avenger.

The story is fairly simple. Jack receives a call from Silas (Joe Blakemore) to pick up a package tied to a buoy in the North Sea amongst towering wind power generators. Dangerous barely describes it not to mention a couple on jet-skies chasing him through over the sea. Evading them he gets home to find that Simon has been kidnapped, he suspects Silas, who also didn’t pay Jack for the job.

This sets Jack – a former soldier and moto-cross champion – on a quest to find Silas, his brother and the money. Along the way he meets various characters who aren’t quite what they appear to be and have unexpected capacities for violence namely Craig (Thomas Turgoose) and ex Bo (Jenna Coleman).

Oddly enough other than the bike sequences the film is not relentlessly paced. Its more sedate tracking allows characters to come in – not necessarily develop that much – and build the story that adds another layer later on.

That said there are some tightly directed sequences with a good degree of tension such as when a mob of villains attack Bo’s home having followed Jack there.

Although in colour there is a distinctive neo-noir ambience about the film being set mostly at night, with the aforementioned cold white lights of the refineries providing an industrial sci-fi veneer.

Jackdaw will be in UK cinemas from 26 January 2024.