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Burning Men begins with witnessing the fact that Ray Shearsmith… is dead. Maybe. He’s reciting the tale from beyond the grave, though, if he has left this world. He might not have, but you get that this is being told in flashback, and we’ll get back to this moment when we reach the end.
Ray (Edward Hayter) and Don (Aki Omoshaybi) are the two members of a band who are planning to make it big, and they’re on their way to their first big gig, which is certainly not going to go to plan. However, it must be a better option than staying back in London, as Ray has split from his girlfriend, due to the fact that she’s been playing away.
Oddly, they seem to be going a hell of a distance to get to where they’re going, rather than testing the musical waters locally, but at least they’re aiming for a UK gig first, before taking on Memphis next week.
Along the way, Susie (Elinor Crawley – Submarine) tags along for the ride, and some weird stuff happens because the guys are on drugs.
The camera view is often of the characters looking at while chatting, or observing, each other, so a bit similar to Peep Show, although writer/director Jeremy Wooding did direct a number of episodes of that, and it’s a good technique to use.
I’m watching this on a review screener, which rarely come with subtitles, and they would’ve been welcome since the dialogue is occasionally a bit muffled.
Burning Men is decently directed, but the story is a bit directionless, as Ray’s narration waffles along in a spiritual sense, thanks to the drugs they’ve ingested, but this leads to weird dialogue like “Jack was out of the box, and we had to put him back in”.
Burning Men is out now in select cinemas, and is released tomorrow on Amazon Video.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 96 minutes
Release date: March 18th 2019
Studio: Munro Film Services
Format: 2.35:1
Rating: 4.5/10
Director: Jeremy Wooding
Producers: Fiona Graham, Michael Vine, Jeremy Wooding
Screenplay: Neil Spencer, Jeremy Wooding
Cast:
Ray: Edward Hayter
Don: Aki Omoshaybi
Susie: Elinor Crawley
Gemma: Katie Collins
Tony: Raffaello Degruttola
Tami: Arybella Eddy
Lenny: Christopher Fulford
Emily: Jennifer Goudie
Kate: Stacie James
Eduarda: Simone Lahbib
Kirk: Alex Mills
Micky: Joseph Millson
Belladonna: Sarah-Jane Potts
Robert: Guy Pratt
Spike: Griffin Stevens
Steve: Riley Stewart
Monk: Richard Thorpe
Mad Dad: Andrew Tiernan
Robert’s Partner: Tinnie Tong
Julie: Denise Welch
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.