RUSSELL TOVEY - No.1321

KuchingGirl: @russelltovey Top man ! Thanks so much for your time. Love the little face you drew in my book. Matinee was superb ! X

COOL

EmmaGalt: I've just seen @russelltovey on the tube, living in London is so cool

russelltovey: @EmmaGalt I've just been on the tube with @EmmaGalt living in London is so cool ;-) x

JoeStephenson: There I was saying how great yesterday was with Russell Tovey, when he's on twitter. It was good filming ya yesterday. Some nice 'no you didn't' actions.

russelltovey: @JoeStephenson The diva finger was out in force... Oscar would be proud x thanks for getting me involved :-)

alunsaunders: Ah well, day trip to London to see friends & Trafalgar Studios to have Sex With a Stranger. I mean SEE it. With @russelltovey #marvellous. Great play, crackin performances & pretty cool to meet @russelltovey after. What a nice guy. You were superb!

russelltovey: @alunsaunders cheers Alun :-) x

alunsaunders: @russelltovey and have a great one again tonight! #twoshowday

russelltovey: Salt beef and coleslaw from Gabi's Deli.. A dream wrapped in tin foil x

TMarkstahler: @russelltovey I once had a dream where I was wrapped in tin foil... but that's a different story... and shouldn't be told on Twitter! ;-)

johnwwalton: Had no idea the sun, sex and suspicious parents was narrated by Russell Tovey!

russelltovey: RT @gaydio: If you can get hold of a ticket to see @gaydio favourite @russelltovey in "Sex with a Stranger" we'll fight you for it - it/he rocks.

leeisfun: @russelltovey I tweet you loads you never tweet back! I am going to bum you if you don't tweet back! ;)

russelltovey: @leeisfun hello Lee! Bum away c

russelltovey: @leeisfun X not c

Tower Block: Berlin Film Review

In James Nunn and Ronnie Thompson's directorial debut, a psycho sniper targets tenants of a condemned London high-rise.

The Bottom Line

The tenants check out for good in this taut U.K. horror-thriller.

Cast

Sheridan Smith, Jack O’Connell, Ralph Brown, Russell Tovey, Jamie Thomas King, Julie Graham

Directors

James Nunn, Ronnie Thompson

Screenwriter

James Moran

The price of rent has never seemed so steep as in Tower Block, a tightly wound U.K. horror-thriller in which the tenants of a condemned high-rise get gruesomely picked off by a psycho sniper. Making up for its high concept/low brainpower scenario with some nifty action sequences and energetic performances, this rather promising directorial debut from duo James Nunn and Ronnie Thompson should foreclose at genre fests and ancillary outings worldwide.

In what would provide a decent double billing with last year’s cult and critical darling Attack the Block, the script by genre junky James Moran (Severance) keeps events confined to a rundown London apartment building, whose handful of residents are the final holdouts before the wrecking ball hits.

Among them is a strong-willed single blond, Becky (Sheridan Smith, Hysteria), who in the film’s opening scene witnesses a brutal beating outside her door, only to chicken out when the cops come around asking questions. Cut to three months later where, after a promising one-night stand, she shares a quiet morning coffee with her new beau until – blam! – his brains are blown out across the table cloth.

Several reels of bloody chaos ensue as Becky and her neighbors try to avoid permanent eviction by an unknown, incredibly gifted marksman armed with a state of the art one-man arsenal. These early scenes are among the film’s most hair-raising, and cinematographer Ben Moulden captures them with gripping widescreen imagery that showcases the dingy, working-class decors of production designer Kajsa Soderlund.

As the lodgers check out one by one, Becky and the other survivors, including hot-headed drug pusher, Kurtis (Jack O’Connell, Eden Lake), hope to escape while solving the mystery behind the murder spree. If the ultimate answer is the sort of cop-out that may leave certain viewers feeling cheated, the characters are just enough above stock status, and the MacGuffin just enough above schlock status, to keep things moving swiftly along until the final shootout.

Nunn and Thompson show a knack here for quick and dirty violence, tossing out a few surprises and making the most of a single set and several buckets of corn syrup, although things never turn nauseatingly gory.

Performances are all workable, with O’Connell the standout as a snide gangsta who eventually rallies us to his side.

Venue: Berlin Film Festival (Market)
Production companies: Tea Shop & Film Company, in association with Creativity Media
Cast: Sheridan Smith, Jack O’Connell, Ralph Brown, Russell Tovey, Jamie Thomas King, Julie Graham
Directors: James Nunn, Ronnie Thompson
Screenwriter: James Moran
Producers: James Harris, Mark Lane, Ronnie Thompson
Director of photography: Ben Moulden
Production designer: Kajsa Soderlund
Music: Owen Morris
Costume designer: Matthew Price
Editor: Kate Coggins