SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Lvka An utterly dark and depressing movie: which is also probably why I've enjoyed it so much... Its theme easily reminds us of "Requiem For A Dream" or "Trainspotting" (another British masterpiece); its heavy, discomforting atmosphere of deep sadness and unrecoverable loss, as well as its long, silent frames of bleak, grief-stricken faces, marked by unspeakable pain and suffering, are reminiscent of "Another Day"; and its overall "dragged out" or "self indulgent" artistic approach is evocative of "Elephant", or Bela Tarr's "Satantango". This film is nothing less than a raw and torturous foray into the very heart of darkness and despair; its main subject, as set forth in the very first lines of the movie, is nothing else than the excruciating agony of existence, from whose unbearable hollowness or emptiness the characters seek shelter in drugs, lust, or isolation. From this perspective alone, an obvious link can be drawn to Louis Malle's "The Fire Within", a masterpiece of the 1960's French New Wave cinema, or to its modern-day Nordic 'remake', "Oslo, August 31". Then again, it is obviously not a film for everyone, and neither are those mentioned above, to whom this movie is more or less comparable... After all, not everybody enjoys his or her cup of coffee dark, with NO sugar...

domdavies I feel that this is a well executed film. In the film there is a real sense of desperation, loss and despair, and I feel that this is accentuated in the way that it is shot and also the music that is used. A sense of reality features very prominently within the film and although there isn't much in common with me and any of the characters, I find myself feeling sorry for them but also getting angry at the same time with some of them over the drug use. I actually felt quite shell shocked at the end, not because of the ending or the drug use but because there was lots going on within the film. Everyone had their own little narrative, which was neatly woven into the main theme of the film. I liked the monologue from the girl at the beginning of the film and also how we came back to it at the end. Overall an interesting film and as I say in my summary could have been a little shorter.

Dan Bullock Although I understand what the writer/director is trying to do with this debut, I just felt massively underwhelmed by the project. It also feels too lengthy and dragged out. If the stories were told a little faster and with some stronger actors, I'm sure I would have been pulled into their dark, stormy worlds.A good start grabbed me attention wise and I wanted to know where the characters were going but there is only so many long shots of an every-day scenario you can take before it becomes something akin to looking at a photograph intently for 10 minutes when you've seen the same photo 5-times before.The old couple were particularly poignant but the other characters didn't capture the mindset excessively or vividly. An interesting debut for someone who must have had good backing and I think it could have been snappier and shorter and still retained its gritty teeth.Direction can, indeed, make a film as much as good acting can overhaul dodgy directing. However, 'Better Things' doesn't live up its positive title. I understand the irony/play on that title but even in the depths of reality and creeping inside the corpse of drug abuse, I wanted a lot, lot more to happen and a lot more to get me thinking about.

come2whereimfrom 'Better Things' is Duane Hopkins bleak but brilliant directorial debut set in rural Britain. It tells a series of stories against a backdrop of a countryside that, far from idyllic, has become a wash with drugs, death, intrigue and teenage angst. Shot beautifully any single frame from the first ten minute sequence could be a photograph in an exhibition, as too could certain shots right the way through this movie. Cold and almost bleached out you can really feel the grey and the pain as we get snapshots of peoples lives, people affected by death, drug abuse, isolation, frustration, its not the easiest watch but like last years 'Hunger' it deals with dark subject matter and turns it into a thing of random beauty. Hopkins draws from his cast of first timers a sense of the real like we are privy to their lives and watching a documentary of sorts. But it's in the spaces in-between where the films real strength lie giving the viewer only part of the story and leaving the feverish mind to fill in the gaps. Take for example the old couple, she asks her husband at one point if he will forgive her but you never find out what for, it is probably not as bad as you think it is or maybe its worse. These spaces are like the gaps between verses and choruses in songs, places to let the piece breathe and ultimately they are essential to the overall film. Like peeking through the curtains at the seedy underbelly of Britain 'Better Things' wont be to everybody's taste but anyone who likes a well paced and superbly shot meditation should check it out, a great first film that should see Hopkins move onto bigger and better things.