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Community is a satirical comedy series created by Dan Harmon. The NBC series follows Jeff Winger, a lawyer who gets disbarred after it is discovered that he lied about having a bachelor’s degree. To get his legal career back, he began attending Greendale Community College. He soon befriends a group of misfits, including Britta, Abed, Shirley, Annie, Troy, and Pierce. Community stars Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie, Donald Glover, Ken Jeong, Chevy Chase, and Jim Rash. So, if you loved the entertaining stories, hilarious dark comedy, and compelling characters in Community, here are some similar shows you should check out next.

A.P. Bio Credit – Peacock

A.P. Bio is a workplace comedy sitcom series created by Mike O’Brien. The NBC series follows Jack Griffin, a philosophy professor who gets fired from...

Nick Frost has been in multiple acclaimed films in 2024, from Black Cab to Krazy House, and recently, Get Away. Meanwhile, Simon Pegg is reprising his long-running role in the next Mission: Impossible film, and will be in Ice Age 6. Director Edgar Wright is following his hit Last Night in Soho with the highly-anticipated remake of The Running Man. They're all successful creatives, but 25 years ago, before their films Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, they were relatively unknown artists who came together (with the great Jessica Hynes) for an era-defining TV show, Spaced.

Spaced was a groundbreaking comedy series that set the stage for their careers, despite only having 14 episodes across two seasons. Fans have always wondered, will there ever be more Spaced? Nick Frost, hot off writing and acting in the new dark comedy thriller Get Away, told MovieWeb in a recent interview:

"I think we're always...

Jessica Hynes, who played Shaun's friend Yvonne in Shaun of The Dead, has revealed that Edgar Wright made a costly mistake during filming for the 2004 zombie hit. Shaun of The Dead was the first installment of the Cornetto Trilogy, followed by Hot Fuzz (2007) and The World's End (2013).

Directed by Edgar Wright and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the film is widely acclaimed, with a 92% Rotten Tomatoes score. The comedy follows friends Shaun and Ed as they fight their way through a zombie apocalypse in London, aiming to take refuge at their local pub, The Winchester, all while cleverly poking fun at the zombie genre. In a recent interview with Screen Rant, Hynes revealed that at one point, the Winchester set had to be entirely rebuilt.

Related Edgar Wrights The Running Man Star Glen Powell Teases 'Outrageous' Remake

The Running Man remake star Glen Powell teases what fans can...

Originally published in Empire in October 2021

It lasts roughly a minute and consists of only a handful of shots (and none of Edgar Wright’s trademark visual wizardry), yet the moment in Shaun Of The Dead when Simon Pegg’s hapless hero and his group of survivors round the corner and bump into another group is possibly the film’s most ambitious gag. Mainly because the other gang is played by a who’s who (then and now) of British comedy: Martin Freeman, Reece Shearsmith, Tamsin Greig, Spaced mainstay Julia Deakin, Matt Lucas and, at the vanguard, Pegg’s Spaced co-creator, Jessica Hynes. A finer cavalcade of cameos, you’ll never see.

———

Edgar Wright [co-writer/director]: We used to call it ‘Shaun Of The Dead Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’. You’re watching one story and the idea is, “What if they bumped into another film?”

Simon Pegg [co-writer/Shaun]: We just thought...

Fans of the recent TV adaptation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's Good Omens need to see Sean Phillips' art for the 2014 BBC Radio 4 adaptation of the beloved novel. The art shows the radio play's cast in their roles, painting a totally different picture of these beloved characters than fans know from the Amazon adaptation, where David Tennant & Michael Sheen play Crowley and Aziraphale. With a new graphic novel adaptation on the way, Phillips' art sets a high bar.

Shared on The Art of Sean Phillips blog, the art shows various actors in the guises of their characters. In the most surprising difference for fans of the Amazon show, Peter Serafinowicz - who has starred as everything from John Wick's Sommelier to a member of the McU's Nova Corps to the voice of Star Wars' Darth Maul - is the demonic Crowley, and Mark Heap is his angelic ally Aziraphale.

Also picks up festival favourite ‘A Life On The Farm’.

Bulldog Film Distribution has acquired four films for UK-Ireland release, including darkly comic thriller A Kind Of Kidnapping.

Writer-director Dan Clark’s feature debut won the main Golden Bee plus best actress and best screenplay awards at Manchester Film Festival in March; Bulldog will release it theatrically in July, including a Q&a tour. Patrick Baladi stars as a sleazy politician who turns his kidnapping by a young couple to his advantage.

Oscar Harding’s A Life On The Farm, which has played over 30 film festivals including Edinburgh and the US’ Fantastic Fest,...

Flatmates have always been a goldmine for sitcoms, but the format was especially abundant on British TV in the '90s. You had Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmonson beating the crap out of each other in ultra-violent slapstick fashion in "Bottom," Ben Chaplin playing an agoraphobic roomie from hell in "Game On," and two guys talking about boobs and drinking beer in the roaringly popular and very laddish "Men Behaving Badly." Even "Red Dwarf" was basically the same formula, just set on a spacecraft three million years in the future where one flatmate was an android and another evolved from the ship's cat. Then you had "Friends" on its immensely successful Channel 4 run, like an affluent and super good-looking acquaintance wafting into a party full of slightly down-at-heel guests to dazzle with its slick writing and to-die-for New York apartments.

Each show had its own specific style, but nothing...

” It’s not murder, it’s ketchup!”

Simon Pegg in Hot Fuzz (2007) plays midnights this weekend (August 9th and 10th) at the Tivoli as part of their Reel Late at the Tivoli Midnight series. A Facebook invite for the event can be found Here

Hot Fuzz tells the story of London supercop Constable Nicholas Angel (played by Simon Pegg). Angel is one baaaad man! He has a ridiculously high arrest rate and is in top physical and mental shape. But his cronies in the London police are jealous of his success b/c he is as the London Chief Inspector says ‘making them all look bad’. So Angel is transferred to the small, quiet English burg of Sandford. The head of Sandford’s police force, Inspector Frank Butterman assures Angel that nothing ever goes on in Sandford and that there hasn’t been a murder or major case in 20 years!

Stars: Laurence Saunders, Chris Simmons, Ben Manning, Pablo Raybould, Ste Johnson, Joel Beckett, Julie Peasgood, Julia Deakin, Stephan Bessant | Written and Directed by Pablo Raybould

Werewolf movies aren’t generally the most popular sub genre of horror and there doesn’t seem to be half as many made as say, zombie movies. So when a new one is made I do like to check it out. An American Werewolf In London is arguably the most well known of the genre and probably the best to (it certainly has the best transformation scene) but Britain has produced a few other decent ones to. Most notably 2002’s Dog Soldiers and the more recent Howl. The Snarling chooses to go down a much more comedic route.

With The Snarling we see a new zombie film (it’s not quite as confusing as it might sound) being filmed in a small village. Unfortunately, the...

Louisa Mellor Jun 1, 2017

Some exciting new UK drama and comedy commissions are making their way to TV over the next year or so…

We know, we know. You still have two episodes of Fargo season two before you can think about starting season three. You’ve already fallen behind on American Gods. Your planner memory is chock-a-block with Big Little Lies and that Oj Simpson thing and some Spanish prison series your workmate bullied you into recording. You’re struggling to make time for Twin Peaks. New Game Of Thrones is just around the corner. And guess what, Netflix UK have just added a whole new season of It’s Always Sunny, those sods. You need a list of new TV show recommendations like you need a hole in the head.

See related Metroid: Other M Nintendo Wii review

And yet, as long as they keep making them, we’ll keep recommending them.

Spaced Season 2, Episode 7 “Leaves”

Written by Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson

Directed by Edgar Wright

Aired 04/13/2001 on Channel 4

Before Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright wowed international audiences with their horror comedy Shaun of the Dead, they were part of the Channel 4 sitcom Spaced. This show was one of the first sitcoms to use a single camera setup without a laugh track. Spaced also featured quick hitting pop culture homages almost a decade before Community and blend of dry and surreal humor. However, the show’s greatest strength was its interesting characters who could be simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking. These endearing characters are what made Spaced an enduring cult phenomenon in both the UK and United States.

Before rounding off the character arcs, Pegg and Stevenson overload the script with a huge number of in-jokes and running gags that reward viewers who have watched the show from start to finish.

Have you noticed that a lot of the same actors have appeared in the Edgar Wright films that make up the Cornetto Trilogy (or, more unofficially, the Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy): "Shaun of the Dead" (2004), "Hot Fuzz" (2007) and "The World's End" (2013)? And we don't just mean those lovable scamps Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

It's all one big acting family for the Cornetto gang, as illustrated below in our handy infographic. Besides Pegg and Frost, Martin Freeman, Rafe Spall, Julia Deakin, Kevin & Nick Wilson and even Bill Nighy (who has a voice cameo in "The World's End") appear in all three films, with Reece Shearsmith, Michael Smiley, David Bradley and James Bond* appearing in two.

*We're not gonna explain that joke. It's yours to get, or to figure out.

Click on the image below for more than just a pint-sized version.

More NextMovie Originals View Gallery »...

Each week Cinelinx will chose one director for an in-depth examination of the “signatures” that they leave behind in their work. This week, with the release of The World’s End, we examine the trademark style and calling signs of Edgar Wright as director.

We all know that we do our best work when we feel comfortable and properly motivated. In movies, this is no different. Actors need to be able to be properly supported by their directors in order to produce their best performance. Similarly, directors need to be able to trust their actors and have a relationship with them such that they are able to make clear what is required. In order to accomplish this, actors frequently collaborate with a director, especially if they have a good friendship and/or a mutual respect for each other’s work. Edgar Wright is one of those directors who has been...

With Edgar Wright's whip-panning, crash-zooming camerawork and dense, cineliterate scripts from Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes, it was all but inevitable that the team behind Spaced would make the leap to the big screen. The spirit of Channel 4's cult sitcom lives on in Shaun of the Dead, Wright and Pegg's rom-zom-com that set a relationship breakdown against the backdrop of a zombie apocalypse. It was Tim Bisley's amphetamine-fuelled Resident Evil 2 session in Spaced (alongside a hefty dose of George A Romero's classic Dead trilogy) that inspired this film... And what a film!

Shaun of the Dead is one of those rare occasions when the movie Gods align and everything just clicks. Wright's film manages to be whip-smart, scary and - despite being incredibly funny - never resorts to spoofing the zombie movie genre it's so firmly rooted in.

The slackerdom explored by American indie darlings Kevin Smith...

Spaced “Beginnings”

Directed by Edgar Wright

Written by Simon Pegg & Jessica Stevenson

Aired 9/24/1999

Many pilot episodes focus too much on exposition and establishing who the series’ characters are. In those instances, pacing and humor frequently fall by the wayside. Spaced’s first episode is anything but a slow, disappointing introduction of characters and grating jokes. From the opening scene, intercutting Tim Bisley (Simon Pegg) and Daisy Steiner (Jessica Stevenson) leaving (or in Tim’s being thrown out of) their current flats, “Beginnings” is a surreal look at two people who meet by accident and form a friendship of necessity.

Tim and Daisy are London twenty-somethings who first meet in a café. Daisy first makes the mistake of thinking Tim is a drug dealer, but the two eventually bond while they search for available flats in the newspaper. After knowing each other for barely two weeks, they decide to pose as...

You have to admire filmmakers who scrape together the money to produce a feature film with a unique point of view. The films go largely unnoticed, play on the festival circuit and if lucky, land a cable or home video deal, widening the exposure. As a result, some interesting gems surface but it’s always hit or miss.

That phrase also applies to Ben Wheatley’s Down Terrace, a film shot over eight days in 2009 and recently released on DVD by Magnolia Home Entertainment. Wheatley is a Brit who cut his teeth on second unit, advertising and webisodes, all of which was a good training ground. When he finally managed his first feature, he received good notices, even winning the Next Wave prize at Fantastic Fest in Austin and Best UK Feature at London’s Raindance.

This is a claustrophobic crime drama that has been described as a low budget...

Hitting movie theaters this weekend:

No Strings Attached – Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher, Kevin Kline

The Way Back – Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess, Colin Farrell (limited)

Movie of the Week

The Way Back

The Stars: Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess, Colin Farrell

The Plot: A group of gulag escapees journey 4,000 miles to their freedom.

The Buzz: This is Director Peter Weir’s latest — that’s enough buzz right there.

In watching the film’s trailer, one gets the feeling that The Way Back is more of an adventure tale than it is a tale about the gulag. But we’re not talking carefree adventure here; this looks to be a story predominantly about survival, and survival in the most brutal of conditions. Knowing the film is based on a true story, combined with the way in which it has been marketed, allows for one to somewhat safely assume a happy ending (otherwise it...

Looking to discover some of the best films of last year that might just have flown under your radar? Here’s our round-up…

General consensus seems to be that 2010 was a solid year for English-language films. But, as usual, there were an abundance of movies that didn't quite get the love they deserved.

Granted, our round-up this year kicks off with one that was a solid hit, but given that it's still managed to avoid many people's radar, we felt it deserved another push. As for the rest? Well, let's just say it's worth you digging out any of these...

10. Easy A

Okay, this one's cheating a bit. It was a solid box office hit and reaped a fair bit of acclaim. Yet, we're kicking off the list with it as it's also a film that's been overlooked by many who have pigeon-holed it without really giving it a chance.

2010 has kind of been an astonishing year for films. And most of you won't know that until well into the middle of next year. The major studio tentpole films -- the huge summer releases, the bloated "comedies," the formulaic rom-coms that all your family members have been lauding while you sit in the corner silently seething -- have all been pretty much uniformly shit. (Show of hands, how many of your relatives were gushing about how much they can't wait for either Little Fockers or The Dilemma?) But the smaller films have been fucking champion.

Most of this list is going to seem incomplete, and that's because a majority of films have been included on the best documentaries and the general top ten lists. Also, because with the spotty release schedules and the vast majority of films, I'm not even sure what's actually eligible. Hell, as much as I pared down this list,...

Down Terrace

Directed by Ben Wheatley

Written by Robin Hill & Ben Wheatley

UK, 2009

A good movie that could very easily have been a great one, Down Terrace, a very black comedy with a dash of arthouse ambition, has all the ingredients necessary for a truly distinctive feature but bungles the proportions, making for a peculiar viewing experience – one worth partaking in, provided a strong inclination towards gallows humor.

Writer-director Ben Wheatley is already somewhat of a commodity in his native UK thanks to a BBC comedy series he created, The Wrong Door, and his comedic pedigree certainly shows through here. Terrace, his first feature, revolves around a clan of two-bit criminals whose professional ties might actually be stronger than their blood ties. Father Bill (Robert Hill) and son Karl (Robin Hill, Robert’s real-life son and the film’s co-writer) are fresh off of a stint in the clink, and...

I’ve never fully understood British humor. The dry delivery and snarky wit sometimes really works and can result in me being on the ground laughing with how brilliant it is (i.e. Death at a Funeral). That said, sometimes the much more direct approach and often times crass in-your-face mentality of it leaves my American mind confused as to whether I’m supposed to be merely amused or rolling on the floor in tears (i.e. most films created by Guy Ritchie). I’d put Down Terrace in the latter category. When checking the IMDb for the film prior to my viewing, the poster had such raves as “Caustically Funny!” and had a genre label of “Comedy”. What I ended up getting was something much more in the vein of Guy Ritchie. While not without its moments of comedic finesse, Down Terrace succeeds more as a quirky crime family...

Winning accolades and fans across the festival circuit for the past year, and comparisons to material as far and wide as Ken Loach and The Sopranos (although in all fairness it is neither of those things, more like deader-than-deadpan Coen Brothers absurdity) Down Terrace has been playing in limited release for a month, and is opening in Canada commercially at the Carlton Theatre in Toronto (before expanding out to Vancouver) November 12th.  I have been shamelessly been sitting on a lengthy chat with writer/director Ben Wheatley while the film played at the Fantasia Film Festival back in July.  He left his copy of Sight & Sound behind as he took off to the airport after our conversation, which I scored (snack-cake!) but don't tell him.  A prolific advertisement and TV director, he is as film literate and verbose has one would expect from a genre-mashing drama/comedy/gangster picture with literate and verbose characters.

[Here begins a trio of Toronto-centric posts and, yes, I apologize to those of you who don't live here.]

Fans of bleaker than bleak comedy in Canada, give a nice round of applause to Evokative Films because they're about to give Ben Wheatley's award winning black comedy Down Terrace a theatrical release on these shores. Here's the official word:

Montreal, Thursday October 21st, 2010 - After screenings at the Fantasia and Vancouver International Film Festivals, Down Terrace will be opening at the Carlton Theatre in Toronto on November 12th. This is the first English-speaking film release for Evokative Films, having concentrated its releases on International, subtitled films over the last two years.

Father and son Bill and Karl have just been released from jail, but all is not well at Down Terrace. Patriarchs of a small crime family, their business is plagued with infighting: Karl has had more than he can take of his old man's philosophizing and preaching; Bill thinks Karl's dedication to the family is seriously compromised...

[As it is getting its Us Release today, here is my Review of Down Terrace, go see it, especially if you are a fan of the deadpan Coen Brothers sense of black-humour.]

Upon being released from custody for some petty larceny, Ben and his son Karl, small time gangsters both, return home more or less in silence for an awkward couple of beers and stale pound-cake with their mates.  Karl's girlfriend comes by to celebrate, but her belly belies a quite pregnant figure.  Karl's reaction is perfect in its purity: "Fuck!"  The following, well that's that then on the surface, panic very much underneath, encapsulates the dysfunction and overall incompetence of the men in the family, and how they project their issues upon themselves and their kin.   Nobody does people behaving badly towards one another with a low key passive-aggressive narcissism (played for pathos and laughs, naturally) quite like the Brits.  Equal parts sitcom-from-hell and verite-family-drama, Down Terrace makes the most of its low budget and limited location by virtue of a wonderful collection of actors and non-actors ripping each other to shreds (both figuratively,...

Why did British TV comedy director Ben Wheatley decide to make a feature length film? Because he couldn’t be “bothered” to make a short one. “I said to my agent, ‘I want to do some drama,’” Wheatley recalls. “And he just went, ‘You can’t, they’re not going to let you. You have to go and make a short.’ I thought, ‘I can’t be bothered.’ Because it’s such a lot of effort and money. I thought, if I’ve got to make something off my own back, I’ll make a feature.”

The ultimate result of...

Director: Ben Wheatley Writers: Robin Hill, Ben Wheatley Starring: Bob Hill, Robin Hill, Julia Deakin, Sara Dee, Mark Kempner, Kali Peacock, Kerry Peacock, David Schaal, Michael Smiley, Gareth Tunley, Tony Way Karl’s (Robin Hill) mother, Maggie (Julia Deakin), and father, Bill (Robert Hill), run a crime syndicate in Brighton, England. (Apparently, Bill is a middleman of sorts between the big wigs in London and the small time crooks in Brighton.) This not-so-average middle-class family has issues on a normal day -- Karl has severe anger management issues and throws tantrums that would make a 2-year old blush, Bill is overtly patronizing and condescending, and Maggie is the queen of passive-aggressiveness -- so when the additional stresses of a possible snitch and an unplanned baby are added to the mix, their already fiery personalities begin to combust. Down Terrace commences as Karl and Bill return home after a frustrating court case involving Karl.

Real life father and son Robert and Robin Hill headline Ben Wheatley's searing crime dramedy Down Terrace, which makes its way into select cinemas this Friday, October 15th. The story follows the heads of a crime family struggling to keep their business together as infighting and a police informant threaten to unravel everything around them. We have your first look at Down Terrace with an emotionally charged clip that features Robert and Robin Hill arguing over an impending marriage. To get a taste of this "caustically funny" and "fantastic" dramatic comedy, click on the clip below:

Down Terrace: We're Getting Married

Fresh from watching his son Karl being acquitted in court, family head Bill returns to his terraced home in Brighton with dangerous questions swimming around his head. Questions which will lead to violence, recrimination and murder. Who grassed him up to the police? How will top brass...

ComingSoon.net has your exclusive first look at a clip from dark comedy Down Terrace , opening in theaters on October 15. Directed by Ben Wheatley, the film stars Bob Hill, Robin Hill, Julia Deakin, Sara Dee, Mark Kempner, Kali Peacock, Kerry Peacock, David Schaal, Michael Smiley, Gareth Tunley and Tony Way. In Down Terrace , father and son Bill and Karl (real life father and son Bob and Robin Hill) have just been released from jail free and clear, but all is not well at Down Terrace. Patriarchs of a small crime family, their business is plagued with infighting. Karl has had more than he can take of his old man's philosophizing and preaching, and Bill thinks Karl's dedication to the family is seriously compromised when he takes up with an estranged girlfriend who claims to be...

Down Terrace, an unusual gangster film from U.K., opens this Friday, October 15th at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 in West Hollywood. Directed by Ben Wheatley, written by Robin Hill (who stars in the film) and Ben Wheatley, and produced by Andrew Starke, the film's cast includes Julia Deakin, Sara Dee, Robert Hill, Robin Hill, Mark Kempner, Kali Peacock, Kerry Peacock, David Schaal, Michael Smiley, Gareth Tunley, and Tony Way. The film has been described in the press as "The Sopranos if imagined by Mike Leigh and Ken Loach."Synopsis: Father and...

Apple has debuted the trailer for the British gangster thriller Down Terrace, which, according to The Playlist, has been quietly racking up the accolades during its festival run. The film will be released in New York and Los Angeles on October 8, and will expand in the weeks after.

Down Terrace is directed by Ben Wheatley, and its principal cast members are Julia Deakin, Sara Dee, and Robert Hill. The trailer certainly makes it seem to be an genre-leaping effort, and even though I’m not very familiar with the talent involved, I’m looking forward to giving this one a shot.

Plot: Down Terrace stars real life father and son Bob and Robin Hill as Bill and Karl, the heads of a crime family struggling to keep their business together as infighting and a police informant in their midst threaten to unravel it completely. Featuring stars of such beloved British TV shows as “Spaced,...

This is the trailer for Down Terrace, directed by Ben Wheatley and starring Robin Hill, Robert Hill, Julia Deakin, David Schaal, Kerry Peacock, Tony Way, Mark Kempner, Michael Smiley and Gareth Tunley. Taking the best elements of The Sopranos and giving them a very British twist, Down Terrace focuses on the kind of issues faced by all families. Can Uncle Eric dispose of a body without making a mess of it again? And what should mum Maggie (Spaced’s Julia Deakin) make for tea? When Bill suspects there’s a mole in his criminal operation, he decides it’s time to clean house and recrimination, betrayal, murder and a spot of redecorating are quick to follow. But as Bill and his family soon discover, you’re only as good as the people you know…...

The A-Team (12A)

(Joe Carnahan, 2010, Us) Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Jessica Biel. 119 mins

Versus

The Karate Kid (PG)

(Harald Zwart, 2010, Us) Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan, Taraji P Henson. 140 mins

Who should you put your money on in the clash of the 1980s remakes? In the red corner, a meat locker full of wisecracking testosterone; in the blue, a Hollywood brat chop-socking it to the Chinese. Both bring their stories up-to-date (the A-Team are now post-Iraq special ops; the Karate Kid is set in Beijing, and more of a kung fu kid), while playing on the old shtick, and both overstay their welcome by a good half-hour. The A-Team strikes the right cartoony tone, but then bludgeons you into boredom with action. The Karate Kid at least earns its predictable payoff, despite the nepotism and tourist-brochure China. It's no knockout, but the Kid wins this bout on points.

Gainsbourg (15)

(Joann Sfar,...

A cracking British gangster film that's crying out to be seen, Michael checks out Down Terrace...

It seems that every couple of months, we're presented with a new, independent, British film, a small-budgeted hopeful that puts a new spin on crime, drugs, and inner-city violence. Be it Harry Brown, Shifty or Shank, these films are getting made, and offer oddly occluded entertainment, halfway between ambition and blandness, edginess and political naivety.

At their best (Shifty), these films are starkly personal. At their worst (the end of Harry Brown, the whole of Shank), it comes off as committee-led Broken Britain bumbling.

And so, into the breach steps Down Terrace, another modestly budgeted crime flick from an up-and-coming filmmaker, namely director/co-writer/editor Ben Wheatley, who graduates from television work with this debut feature.

So far, so similar, but the big difference here is that we get a twisted, bold and fresh...

Cinematical have posted an exclusive poster for Down Terrace, an upcoming family-orientated crime comedy. Directed by first-timer Ben Wheatley and starring Robin Hill, Julia Deakin, Rupert Hill and Sara Dee; the UK production has won awards at both Raindance and the Boston Independent Film Festival.

Synopsis: After serving jail time for a mysterious crime, Bill and Karl get out of jail and become preoccupied with figuring out who turned them in to the police. On top of that, the “family business” is on the rocks, and the motley crew of criminals who operate out of Down Terrace aren’t feeling terribly trusting of one another. It might look like an ordinary house, but at Down Terrace, the walls are closing in…

Ben Wheatley’s directing style has been compared to the likes of Ken Loach, Mike Leigh and The Coen Brothers, making this a UK crime comedy worth a viewing.

Upon being released from custody for some petty larceny, Ben and his son Karl, small time gangsters both, return home more or less in silence for an awkward couple of beers and stale pound-cake with their mates.  Karl's girlfriend comes by to celebrate, but her belly belies a quite pregnant figure.  Karl's reaction is perfect in its purity: "Fuck!"  The following, well that's that then on the surface, panic very much underneath, encapsulates the dysfunction and overall incompetence of the men in the family, and how they project their issues upon themselves and their kin.   Nobody does people behaving badly towards one another with a low key passive-agressive narcissism (played for pathos and laughs, naturally) quite like the Brits.  Equal parts sitcom-from-hell and verite-family-drama, Down Terrace makes the most of its low budget and limited location by virtue of a wonderful collection of actors and non-actors ripping each other to shreds (both figuratively,...

Down Terrace is yet another entry in the British crime caper genre, only it puts a substantially different spin on it. That doesn't mean it's a good film, although it almost is. When it works, it's wonderfully effective. Unfortunately, the sum of its parts do not equal a fully realized film -- Down Terrace fits the definition of close, but not quite.

Directed by Ben Wheatley, Down Terrace is about a small-time family of crooks headed by Bill (Robert Hill) and his son Karl (Robert's real-life son Robin Hill, who also wrote the screenplay). They're recently returned from jail, where they narrowly avoided serious time and are trying to get the family affairs back in order. There's a leak somewhere in their organization, and they need to figure it out. Among their list of friends and suspects are mother Maggie (Julia Deakin), and comrades Garvey (Tony Way), Pringle (Michael Smiley...

The Independent Film Festival of Boston kicks off on Wednesday. If you're in the New England area, this is the best film festival around, having supplanted the fall Boston Film Festival as the one to be at after less than a decade of existence. It offers a great opportunity to see a lot of great independent films, a few of which are premieres, and several of which played earlier at Sundance or at South by Southwest. IFFBoston, however, offers a more low-key opportunity to see those same movies without having to deal with the massive crowds or the lengthy lines. Even two days before the festival begins, you can still purchase tickets and walk up, half an hour before showtime, and get a seat. Most of the films play in Davis Square (in Somerville), which is the second best neighborhood in metro Boston, save for Brookline (where some of the other films will be showing,...

If "The Sopranos" had been cooked up by Mike Leigh instead of David Chase, the result might resemble Down Terrace, an unassuming little dramedy that barely seems to mesh with the genre criteria of most other Fantastic Fest programming and yet managed to take home a handful of awards, and rightfully so.

Karl (Robin Hill) has followed in his father's footsteps, to the extent that they've both just been let out of jail, and Bill (Robert Hill) wonders who may have ratted them out. Karl has more pressing concerns, though -- namely, a girlfriend (Kerry Peacock) whose pregnancy will require more responsibility on Karl's part than he's ever known.

Sure, Bill's not terribly keen on the prospect of becoming a grandfather, just as Maggie (Julia Deakin) is wary of becoming a grandmother, especially with them all already living under one roof. But their top priority is finding the leak and plugging it,...

Before Hot Fuzz, before Shaun of the Dead, there was Spaced! Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Jessica Hynes first teamed up on the British sitcom Spaced (1999-2001).

{sidebar id=1}They were joined by Nick Frost, Julia Deakin, Mark Heap, and Katy Carmichael to play their quirky friends. Pegg and Hynes play comic-book artist Tim Bisley and struggling writer Daisy Steiner, two recent acquaintances who pretend to be a couple to acquire a flat. They move into an apartment run by their alcoholic super Marsha Klein and her rebellious daughter. Among their neighbors is an angst-ridden artist, Brian, who lives downstairs. The couple is commonly joined by Tim.s best friend, militant Mike, and Daisy.s best friend, fashionista Twist. Though the show is full of pop culture references, the heart of Spaced is in the characters and how realistically their lives are portrayed.

The DVD includes both seasons of the series,...