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Small-town England can have a strange underbelly — and larky comedy Chicken Town knows this well. The movie is set in the flat badlands of Lincolnshire and Norfolk, where unlikely drugs kingpins fill quiet cul-de-sacs. The story unites young and old at the social margins. At one end of the age spectrum, veteran comic actor Graham Fellows plays a lonely retiree, stumbled into dealings with a cannabis empire. At the other is teenager Jayce (Ethaniel Davy), with scores to settle after a miscarriage of justice. The plot points sound bleak, but the tone is rowdy and cheerful. (And non-violent.)
The director is Richard Bracewell, whose CV includes Bill, the mock-Shakespeare biopic made with the cast of vastly popular children’s TV show Horrible Histories. This time around, there are echoes of the more recent past, calling to mind filmmaker Shane Meadows in the sweeter, rough-and-ready mode of his early movies.
Chicken Town can feel a little scuffed too, with a few creaks to the dialogue, but it is likeable and lovingly made, down to the detail of Bernard Hughes’ sprightly score, and the careful look of the suburban landscape. Horrible Histories fans of all ages will also note the presence of cast member Laurence Rickard, popping up here as a conspiracy theorist mechanic, vexed by 5G masts and the Bilderberg Group. “Birds Aren’t Real,” a poster suggests in his garage. Think on, sheeple.
★★★☆☆
In UK cinemas from June 27
