Reviewed by Duncan Bain
Stars Olivia Colman, Paddy Considine,
Richard Graham, Seamus O'Neill
Devised by Shane Meadows & Paddy Considine
Art direction by Alexandra Collins
Certification UK 15
Runtime 71 minutes
Directed by Shane Meadows
Shane Meadows continues his highly fruitful relationship with Warp Films – a collaboration that to date has created modern classics Dead Man’s Shoes and This is England. Shaking things up a bit, he and producer Mark Herbert have embarked on a new venture – The 5 Day Feature. Cryptically enough, this involves filming a complete production in the limited time span of 5 days, the first fruit of which is “Le Donk”.
Posing as a documentary, we find Paddy Considine as the eponymous “Donk”, a roadie / blagger who is trying to get rotund rapper and tenant “Scor-Zay-Zee” a warm up slot performing before the “Article Monkeys.” Hot-headed Donk is a maelstrom of enthusiastic energy, firing off misinformed non-sequiturs and unpolished pearls of wisdom to anyone within earshot. Stopping off at Donk’s heavily pregnant estranged girlfriend (played by Olivia Colman), the limited film crew then follow Donk & Scor-Zay-Zee on the long drive from Nottingham to Manchester’s Old Trafford, whereupon Donk sets about finding some work for his protégé.
Considine is on the screen for nearly the entirety of this film, and when he isn’t, you can’t wait for him to return. Clearly improvising a lot of the dialogue, he’s created a believable and sympathetic character who I suspect will lodge himself in comedic consciousness for a long time to come. It would appear that Donk has been a character since the mid-nineties, but for much of the audience this film will be their first exposure to him, and one can only hope not the last.
Peppered with the odd cameo by the Arctic Monkeys, Le Donk plays like “Alan Partridge on tour with Bad News.” It is a heart warming little film that you will not want to end, and you will want to quote all the best lines to your mates afterwards. More Please!