Inappropriate (Owen Nicholls)

Inappropriate (Owen Nichoils)

I worked for a considerable time in a further education college. I left as it changed. It reframed and became more and more about younger students, expelled students, deprived students, destitute students. With no training or vocation for the role I made mistakes and learned as I went along but ultimately I left because there came a point when I realised it wasn’t about the students, it was about the services. For many the college was a last chance saloon before they ended up where this film begins. With a man they never met expecting them to think he cares. Owen Nicholls has drawn from his own considerable expiereince in the writing here and it not so much shines through as permeates the atmosphere of a bleak environment.

Tim Plester’s Oscar is a great piece for Tim. From the start frustrated and haggard in a downbeat fashion with a certain comic quirk of frustration in the face of indifference. Nonetheless he persists. As he tries to instill rules in Jordan the young offender as he blatantly ignored them for himself it is great to see Tim given a role that evolves and shows rather than tells the situation until the denouement. The realisation that beyond platitudes and affirmations what young people need is someone to be present, to fight their corner, when their best interests outweigh their personal feelings. It’s a journey for them both that 350 simply can’t solve. Jordans abrasive and introspective table carving nature is sharp and reactionary but ultimately vulnerable in a way we rarely see. All in the mercantile backdrop of the fucking numbers of a processing centre. 

Jonathan Blagrove direction helps immesnly in layering the situation in what could have been a two hander play, with adapt use of cameras and angles to stop us just simply seeing Owen’s view but that of the burnt out intitutional world , poker games and all that we see.

Tash Cordeaux was the producer and her contributions show in design and location. collectively a driven peice by all involved.

It does its time and does not outstay its welcome and is a compassionate piece in a clinical setting. Seek it out.