Wild Bill - Fucked By Life - DVD

Content: Eight years in prison are enough for Bill (Charly Creed-Miles). When he's paroled, he just wants to start a new life. But when he gets to his old apartment, his plans are quickly ruined. For his wife has run off, leaving his two sons Dean (Will Poulter) and Jimmy (Sammy Williams) alone in the grey apartment block. Bill has no desire to play father to the two boys, and the kids can think of something better than being raised by an almost unknown ex-con. But the youth welfare office forces Bill to perform his father duties if he doesn't want the children to be placed in foster care. That wouldn't look too good for his parole either. And so Bill tries more badly than well as a caring father, while 11-year-old Jimmy increasingly goes off the rails. The boy gets involved with his father's former partners, of all people, and makes a mistake that could have fatal consequences for more than just Jimmy...

Wild Bill is the directorial debut of actor Dexter Fletcher (Jack, Queen, King, grAs, Kick-Ass). Attempting to blend British gangster cinema with social drama and a touch of comedy, it's an extremely daring endeavor. But Fletcher mostly hits the right tone, which is why his film doesn't overly copy the somewhat overused Guy Ritchie style, nor does it have the dreariness of a Ken Loach film or degenerate into flat silliness. Rather, Fletcher is concerned to tell his story as unsentimentally and entertainingly as possible, while also placing great emphasis on accessible character sketching.

He succeeds pleasingly well, though neither Bill, nor his sons are the entirely sympathetic characters to begin with. Dean is just bitter, Jimmy a little naive and Bill doesn't really want anything to do with his plagues. Just an awfully nice family. It would have been easy for Bill's attempts to play the caring family man against his will to degenerate into clichéd silliness. But Fletcher refrains from that as well as from too much sentimentality (except for one scene towards the end). Instead, Bill's approach to his sons takes place in a very true-to-life and at the same time always very fragile way, so that a real happy ending is never really guaranteed even after a little reconciliation.

What seems even more positive than the renunciation of kitsch, however, is the fact that Fletcher has managed to set the story in a very bleak world dominated by hopelessness, without dragging down the mood of the audience too much. On the contrary, he succeeds well in inserting small glimmers of hope and lightening moments into this gloomy environment again and again, through which a certain positive basic mood is built up. Thus Wild Bill gains in charm and entertainment value in equal measure.

Dexter Fletcher has delivered an entertaining gangster and family drama with his directorial debut, an entertaining piece of British cinema that deserves to find its audience here on DVD and Blu-ray as well. If you like British gangster cinema that doesn't involve rampant violence or action, you should definitely give this one a look. Absolutely worth seeing!

Image + Sound: The reduced colour scheme and good image sharpness capture the drab apartment block mood of the drama very well. The DVD's picture is also absolutely clean, with no glitches or notable blurring. The sound is rather restrained, since the dialogues are mostly in the foreground and music is only sparsely used. But now and then, for example during a brawl, comes through well implemented sound effects also noticeable movement in the surround channels. Good!

Extras: As a bonus, there are just under 12 minutes of cut and extended scenes to see, but they are presented without subtitle option. Otherwise, only the trailer for the film and other programming tips from the provider are offered.

Conclusion:Wild Bill is a decent social drama that traces an ex-con's desperate struggle to rejoin society in an entertaining and engaging manner. The dreary mood of the story, which is mainly set in grey housing estates, is countered by director Dexter Fletcher's restrained but pleasantly lightening humour, which is why his well acted drama doesn't run the risk of completely dragging the viewer down. A good film with a few small lengths, which are easily compensated by the convincing actors. Therefore, there is for the technically well converted DVD also an absolutely deserved: Recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp