Late Night Shopping

Last updated

Late Night Shopping
Late night shopping2.jpg
Directed by Saul Metzstein
Written byJack Lothian
Produced byAngus Lamont
Starring Luke de Woolfson
James Lance
Kate Ashfield
Enzo Cilenti
Edited by Justine Wright
Music by Alex Heffes
Production
companies
SMG Productions
Scottish Screen
Glasgow Film Office
Film4 Productions
Release date
  • 2001 (2001)
Running time
91 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box office$152,000 (United Kingdom) [1]

Late Night Shopping is a 2001 comedy film funded by FilmFour Productions, centering on a group of friends who all work the graveyard shifts.

Contents

Plot

Sean, Vincent, Jody and Lenny work graveyard shifts in various soul-killing jobs (the hospital, a supermarket, a factory and a call centre, respectively) and meet up in a cafe after work to kill time. Apart from this each has very little of a life. Sean hasn't met his girlfriend for three weeks and is beginning to wonder if she still lives in his apartment. Vincent is a serial womanizer. Lenny, formerly a writer of porn stories, can't pluck up the courage to ask out his attractive workmate Gail. Jody, unknown to the others, has been fired from her job, but still shows up after her "shift" every night to talk.

At the hospital, Sean strikes up a friendship with the girlfriend of a coma patient; she confides in him that at the time of the accident she was about to end the relationship. Later, the two sleep together.

Meanwhile, Vincent picks up an attractive young woman, who turns out to be Sean's girlfriend Madeline. Several days later Vincent's colleague Joe has a fatal heart attack; As he is taken to the hospital, Vincent accompanies him and runs into Sean. In a moment of humanity he confesses to have slept with Madeline; Sean reacts first with disbelief, then with violence. Returning to his flat, he discovers that Madeline has moved out.

Sean receives an anonymous phone call and tracing it discovers that it came from a small town where Madeline's friend has an aunt. Sean, Lenny and Jody decide to drive there to find Madeline. On the way there they spot Vincent on the side of the road; they pick him up, and Sean says they're even after crushing Vincent's favourite possession - a watch that belonged to Errol Flynn.

Unable to find Madeline the group gather in a cafe and Jody confesses that she lost her job. After Vincent and Lenny leave to play crazy golf, Jody runs into Madeline and sets up a meeting between her and Sean; the two of them discuss the issues in their relationship and come to the conclusion that everything is over.

On the way back the group stops at a motorway service station; Lenny asks Gail out and is turned down, but still sees this as progress. Madeline and Sean argue over who gets to keep the flat, but later kiss when taking photobooth pictures together.

The final scene has Gail finally manage to switch the irritating radio station; the radio plays a noticeably more modern and upbeat song.

Cast

Reception

The film attracted mixed reviews. In a largely critical Sight & Sound review, Andy Richards highlighted the "charmlessness" of the characters and the "trite" pre-credits, Trainspotting -esque voice over. Although the film was set in Glasgow, only the peripheral characters actually spoke with a regional accent. Overall, Richards brands the film "impoverished in ideas." [2] However, in an article for the BBC, Michael Thomson praises the "regular supply of smart ideas from writer Jack Lothian and director Saul Metzstein", while acknowledging the "plot-contrivance and phoniness" of the final section. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesley-Anne Down</span> British actress

Lesley-Anne Down is a British actress, singer and former model. She made her motion picture debut in the 1969 drama film The Smashing Bird I Used to Know and later appeared in films Assault (1971), Countess Dracula (1971) and Pope Joan (1972). She achieved fame as Georgina Worsley in the ITV period drama series, Upstairs, Downstairs (1973–75).

<i>Electric Dreams</i> (film) 1984 American-British science fiction romantic comedy film

Electric Dreams is a 1984 science fiction romantic comedy film directed by Steve Barron and written by Rusty Lemorande. The film is set in San Francisco and depicts a love triangle among a man, a woman, and a personal computer. It stars Lenny Von Dohlen, Virginia Madsen, Maxwell Caulfield, and the voice of Bud Cort.

<i>Chocolat</i> (2000 film) 2000 British-American romance film directed by Lasse Hallström

Chocolat is a 2000 romance film, based on the 1999 novel Chocolat by the English author Joanne Harris, directed by Lasse Hallström. Adapted by screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs, Chocolat tells the story of Vianne Rocher, played by Juliette Binoche, who arrives in the fictional French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes at the beginning of Lent with her six-year-old daughter, Anouk. She opens a small chocolaterie. Soon, she and her chocolate influence the lives of the townspeople of this repressed French community in different and interesting ways.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gail Platt</span> Fictional character from Coronation Street

Gail Rodwell is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by Helen Worth. The character first appeared on-screen on 29 July 1974. Gail is the daughter of Audrey Roberts and Ted Page and is the mother of Nick Tilsley, Sarah Platt and David Platt and has featured in some of the most controversial and high-profile storylines in the soap involving her family and her number of relationships — she is the soap's most married female character, having been married six times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roy Cropper</span> Fictional character from Coronation Street

Roy Cropper is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by David Neilson. He first appeared on-screen on 19 July 1995. Originally a secondary character, he was given a more prominent role in 1997, by the executive producer of Coronation Street, Brian Park. Roy has been featured in numerous high-profile storylines, most notably marrying the first transgender character in a British soap opera, Hayley Patterson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Platt</span> Fictional character from Coronation Street

Martin Platt is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, portrayed by Sean Wilson. His major storylines were a relationship with Gail Tilsley following the death of her husband Brian and the birth of their child David ; a feud with Gail's former mother-in-law Ivy Tilsley ; the adoption of Brian's children Sarah and Nick ; affairs with Cathy Power and Rebecca Hopkins ; his relationship with 16-year-old Katy Harris ; and his involvement in the rescue of Gail from her killer husband Richard Hillman. He left on 9 November 2005. In January 2018, it was confirmed that he would be returning for a short period. He returned on 22 March 2018 and left on 26 March 2018 to go to New Zealand with Robyn and Charlotte.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eileen Grimshaw</span> Fictional character from Coronation Street

Eileen Grimshaw is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street. Portrayed by Sue Cleaver, the character first appeared on-screen during the episode airing on 3 May 2000. Her storylines have often included her relationships with Dennis Stringer, Ed Jackson, Pat Stanaway, Jerry Morton, Jesse Chadwick, Paul Kershaw, Adrian Mortimer and Michael Rodwell, as well as her marriage to serial criminal mastermind Pat Phelan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weatherfield</span> Fictional town in England

Weatherfield is a fictional town based on Salford, Greater Manchester, which has been the setting for the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street since its inception in 1960. Much of Weatherfield has been seen by viewers throughout the years, though the primary focus from the viewer's perspective is the eponymous Coronation Street, a cobbled street where many of the programme's characters live. The soap opera is often shot on location around Salford and the neighbouring large city of Manchester, as its filming studios, the Granada Studios complex on Quay Street in Manchester city centre and its replacement set MediaCityUK in Salford Quays, only house the outdoor sets of Coronation Street and its immediate surrounding streets.

<i>My Blueberry Nights</i> 2007 film by Wong Kar-wai

My Blueberry Nights is a 2007 romantic drama film directed by Wong Kar-wai, his first feature in English. The screenplay by Wong and Lawrence Block is based on a Chinese-language short film written and directed by Wong. My Blueberry Nights stars Norah Jones, Jude Law, David Strathairn, Rachel Weisz, and Natalie Portman.

<i>Survival Island</i> 2005 film directed by Stewart Raffill

Survival Island, also known as Three, is a 2005 erotic thriller survival film written and directed by Stewart Raffill and starring Billy Zane, Kelly Brook, and Juan Pablo Di Pace.

<i>The Fluffer</i> 2001 film by Wash West

The Fluffer, a 2001 American independent film. It focuses on the adult video industry. The film was written by Wash West and co-directed by West and his husband Richard Glatzer. The Fluffer features cameos from a number of figures in the adult entertainment industry, including Ron Jeremy, director Chi Chi LaRue, Karen Dior, Zach Richards, Derek Cameron, Chad Donovan, Thomas Lloyd, Jim Steel, Chris Green and Cole Tucker.

<i>Young Man with a Horn</i> (film) 1950 film by Michael Curtiz

Young Man with a Horn is a 1950 American musical drama film starring Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, Doris Day, Hoagy Carmichael, and Juano Hernandez. Directed by Michael Curtiz, it was based on the 1938 novel of the same name by Dorothy Baker inspired by the life of jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke. The film was produced by Jerry Wald, and its screenplay written by Carl Foreman and Edmund H. North.

<i>Working Girls</i> (1986 film) 1986 film by Lizzie Borden

Working Girls is a 1986 American independent drama film, written, produced and directed by Lizzie Borden working with cinematographer Judy Irola. Its plot follows a day in the life of several prostitutes in a Manhattan brothel.

<i>Lucky 7</i> (film) 2003 American TV film

Lucky 7 is a 2003 television film starring Patrick Dempsey and Kimberly Williams. In the film, a female lawyer arranges her life according to the predictions of her deceased mother. Her mother predicted that she would marry her 7th boyfriend, but the lawyer is confused when she concurrently dates two boyfriends following a break-up. Which one is the 6th boyfriend and which one the 7th boyfriend is unclear to her.

<i>Side Streets</i> (1934 film) 1934 film

Side Streets, also known in the UK as A Woman in Her Thirties, is a 1934 American romantic melodrama directed by Alfred E. Green. The film stars Aline MacMahon, Paul Kelly, Ann Dvorak and Dorothy Tree. The screenplay concerns a spinster who hires, then marries, a destitute sailor who is not always faithful.

References

  1. Dawtrey, Adam (24 December 2001). "Homegrown pix gain in Europe". Variety . p. 7.
  2. Richards, Andy (2001). "Review: Late Night Shopping". Sight & Sound. Vol. 11, no. 6. British Film Institute. p. 47.
  3. Thompson, Michael (18 June 2001). "Review - Late Night Shopping". BBC - Films. Retrieved 18 July 2021.