Bypass *** (2014, George MacKay, Benjamin Dilloway, Arabella Arnott, Chanel Cresswell, Matt Cross) – Movie Review

George MacKay stars as the much troubled Tim, who is both a good kid and a criminal to survive in writer-director Duane Hopkins’s northern British thriller drama. The film is bravely grim and bleak but it is always involving and distinctive.

Tim’s mother has just died, and he must struggle to keep his dysfunctional family together, as the sole carer of his younger sister, who keeps bunking off school. His problems mount up as his older brother Greg (Benjamin Dilloway) has been sent to prison for theft with violence, his grandpa (Donald Sumpter) is in a home and his girlfriend is pregnant.

If MacKay looks emaciated, it’s because he lost two stone to play Tim. Though this is a bad idea for any actor’s body, it may have helped the admirable young actor MacKay to give another first-rate performance, certainly looking the part.

Hopkins makes his second feature (after Better Things in 2008) look and sound striking.

Also in the cast are Arabella Arnott, Chanel Cresswell and Matt Cross.

This film was partly shot in the now closed homeless hostel at 3 Tatham Street in Sunderland.

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