If we are to believe the words of Kiss (and why wouldn’t we?) then we can all agree that rock and roll was given to us by a benevolent, perhaps leather-clad deity. Rock and roll movies however, tend to have more nefarious origins. Many filmmakers have tried and often spectacularly failed to capture the spirit of rock music on film and movie history is littered with the remains of unbelievable fictional bands. Step forward intrepid director David Mackenzie (Hallam Foe, Young Adam) and screenwriter Thomas Leveritt to attempt to redress the balance.
Filmed at Scottish festival T In the Park, You Instead follows the experiences of two performers; Adam, lead singer of The Make (Luke Treadaway) and Morello, lead singer of The Dirty Pinks (Natalia Tena). Within minutes of their arrival, the pair get into a squabble and are handcuffed together by a mysterious preacher type in an attempt to force them to get along. It’s a plot that’s paper thin and after the first five minutes it becomes clear that it has nowhere to go. Unlike Mackenzie’s previous work, You Instead is messy, unfocussed and rather pointless. We follow Adam and Morello as they wander aimlessly around the festival, just killing time until their inevitable love connection. If the pair had a sparkier connection, this would have been bearable but Treadaway and Tena (although believable in their roles) have little chemistry. The dialogue has the stilted quality of bad improvisation and lacks the requisite wit to compensate for lack of incident. Even Mackenzie seems to lose confidence in the central couple as the action flits to Adam’s bandmate Tyko (Mathew Baynton) and their tour manager (an irritating Gavin Mitchell).
The one saving grace of the film is its setting. Filmed during T in the Park, there is a palpable buzz to the crowd scenes and the performances seem quite realistic. Still, the prevailing thought I had in my mind while watching You Instead, was that despite the mud and portaloos, the festival goers looked like they were having a much better time than I was.