 | This article contains too many or overly lengthy quotations .(May 2025) |
| Marching Powder | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Nick Love |
| Screenplay by | Nick Love |
| Produced by | Chris Clark Will Clarke |
| Starring | Danny Dyer |
| Cinematography | Simon Stolland |
| Edited by | Pani Scott |
| Music by | Alfie Godfrey |
Production companies | |
Release date |
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Running time | 96 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Marching Powder is a 2025 British comedy-drama film written and directed by Nick Love. [1]
After being arrested for fighting and cocaine possession during a football hooligan brawl, Jack is ordered by the court to go to couples' therapy for six weeks. Unable to keep a job, he lives off of his father-in-law Ron's money under the condition that he watch over Ron's schizophrenic son Kenny Boy. Jack attempts to stay off of drugs and away from hooligan fighting for the sake of his relationship and his young son, while his wife Dani goes back to art school to recover what she sacrificed to be a stay-at-home mother.
The Firm holds a 33% approval rating at review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes based on the opinions of 12 critics. [2]
Reviewer Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film a rating of three out of five stars, writing, "Marching Powder is broad, it's unsubtle, and its cheerfully nonjudgemental attitude to drugs has got it a rare 18 certificate – something that offers its own frisson, given the movie's laidback attitude to underage consumption of adult porn. But this film has got energy and chutzpah and there are one or two laughs. It's the kind of film Love has been making for 25 years; the type that goes down best with humour – which Love knows how to do." [1]
Reviewer Helen O'Hara of Empire gave the film a rating of two out of five stars, writing, "You can make good films about bad people, and certainly not every redemption story has to result in a sinner becoming a saint. But making a film about a bad person who doesn't want redemption, who seems driven by grievance and who expresses his contempt for and sense of superiority to the audience – without any obvious justification for that feeling – is a tougher sell. Director Nick Love relies on star Danny Dyer's considerable charm in an attempt to do so here, but even he can't quite sell it." [3]
Reviewer Max Martin of Medium wrote, "Although it will definitely be too vulgar for some people, Marching Powder is a charming, heartfelt and genuine film. Its comedy is crude but funny, with a central character who is frustrating but likeable, making it a surprisingly well-put-together film with a strong portrayal of addiction." [4]
Reviewer Austin Atkinson of Nouse wrote, "All in all, this feels like a film built for a bygone era. It is a movie that, if it was released 20-30 years ago, might have worked quite well. However, it's not something that caters to the needs of the modern day viewer, trading sharp, witty humour, for a relatively dull narrative and some unclever or dumb (even if occasionally funny) humour." [5]
Reviewer Linda Merric of heyuguys.com gave the film a rating of three out of five stars, writing, "If you're hoping for a spiritual sequel to The Football Factory, you might come away disappointed. Marching Powder has moments of genuine laugh-out-loud humour, but it often mistakes shock value for sharpness, leaving it somewhere between a guilty pleasure and a tired relic from the early 2000s. I liked it more than I thought I would." [6]
Reviewer Simon Brew of filmstories.co.uk gave the film a rating of two out of five stars, writing, "I didn't like Marching Powder, but I was never supposed to. I did, however, see in it significant evidence of something quite charming in the midst of it. This isn't a hack job, I thus concluded. It's just really not very nice." [7]