The Last Yellow

Toldi, october 13. friday, 22.30, Kossuth 1, october 9. monday, 17.30, Kossuth 4, october 8. sunday, 20.30

Frank, an overweight, single, unemployed thirty something still lives with his mother in suburban Leicester. Frank doesn't grumble about the cards that life has dealt him, in fact he appears to be quite philosophical about it. During the opening scene, Frank muses over a few pints in his grotty local pub and then buys drinks for the other clientele - lonely down-and-outs.

The Last Yellow celebrates this kind of down-at-heel working-class existence. However, where Loach or Leigh ground their dramas in domestic realities, director Julian Farino has fashioned a mood akin to the gloriously tacky spirit of the Carry On films and the ruder Confessions series. Much of this mood can be attributed to the soundtrack, which features pop tunes from such bygone luminaries as Billy Fury, alongside what sound like outtakes from a 1970s porn film.

There's much more, though, to The Last Yellow than jokes about fat blokes and shaggable women. After. being thrown out of the house by his mum, Frank rents a room from a dysfunctional family: Kenny, his drunken, abusive grandfather and his brother who has been left physically and mentally disabled after being beaten up in a pub in London by a gang of hooligans. When Frank starts boasting about his military service history, Kenny involves him in a plan to avenge his brother. From this point The Last Yellow begins to veer. unsettlingly, from cheap 'n' cheerful humour to distressing drama. – Miles Fielder