Institute History
Description
Writer/director Jamie Thraves steps onto the British scene with a clear, fresh voice and an evocative cinematic flair that arguably has been lacking in recent films from the United Kingdom. In The Low Down, he perfectly balances hip style with heartfelt yet wry observances of a group of friends whose lives are about to change.
Aiden Gillen, popular for his lead role in the acclaimed British version of Queer as Folk, is Frank, a restless young man in his late twenties whose life revolves around friends and work. Although he is aware of the need to shift his life into a higher gear, he's not sure how to do it. His indecision becomes more acute when he meets Ruby \*(Kate Ashfield)\**, whose optimistic and fresh approach to life and its problems has a dramatic effect on him.
With unnerving accuracy, The Low Down examines a frozen moment in time—that point after college at which life stalls before one is ready to move on to adulthood. Thraves leads us into the psyche of a man who outwardly is on the right track. He knows how to lease a bigger flat, buy furniture, and generally set his life up, but the emotions of what this means have not caught up with him. Director of photography Igor Jadue-Lillo, adding a look that fits these themes, makes The Low Down a hybrid of raw simple cinema vérité mixed with clever freewheeling cinematic wizardry.