Midlands Review of Last Respects and The Life and Times of Norman Ondoby
Midlands Movies' Matt Tilt takes a look at two new Midlands shorts from filmmaker Andrew Hindle.
Last Respects
Directed by Andrew Hindle
2024
Perhaps the biggest shock of Andrew Hindle’s Last Respects is the appearance of Peter Andre, who puts in a passable performance throughout. Andre plays a small but pivotal role in this gangster short, and while his more threatening moments are more likely to elicit guffaws from the audience, it’s certainly not the worst performance a pop star has ever delivered on screen.
Hindle’s short sees notorious gangster Vinny (Mark Pegg) on his deathbed, with three of his most loyal associates (Sean Cronin, Shah Hussain and Chris Davis) waiting to pay their last respects. Only loyal might not be the right word for them, as one by one they admit transgressions to their dying boss.
It’s a simple but effective setup, with Hindle (along with co-writer Niroomand Shahryar) choosing not to stretch the gangster genre with the dialogue – this is all very cliched Kray style stuff – but instead taking some tongue in cheek risks with the narrative.
Once the three have made their confessions, the storyline splits, with three different endings, all revolving around Andre’s suspicious looking doctor and the hospital nurse (Megan Joy Hillis). It’s a neat twist that elevates the material somewhat. Add to that the moments of dry humour dotted throughout, and Last Respects becomes an entertaining lark, although one that is unlikely to stick with you for very long.
★★★
3 / 5
The Life and Times of Norman Ondoby
Directed by Andrew Hindle
2024
Perhaps better representing Andrew Hindle’s dry, very British sense of humour is the mockumentary The Life and Times of Norman Ondoby. It follows a television personality (Karl Brookes) and his presents a sort of This is Your Life programme about the titular Norman (Keith Minshull) – only to find out that Norman might be the dullest man who ever lived.
It's a silly but effective setup for a film. We’ve all watched those primetime, tearjerker documentaries about the average guy and wondered what the studio would do if the subject was simply too boring to be of interest.
Through interviews with Norman’s family, colleagues and friends, we discover that any excitement in his life often came through misunderstanding. Indeed, the only truly exciting thing that happened to Norman was winning the lottery; an event so stunning that it killed him outright.
But Hindle isn’t looking to mock the Black Country characters that populate the film. The humour is gentle and rather sweet, allowing you look past some of the ropier performances from the non-professional cast.
Despite being just 13 minutes, there a few moments that could have been cut out, with perhaps a tighter, ten-minute runtime keeping the flow of jokes a little more even, but Hindle has developed something here that will illicit laughs from anyone who had had to watch ITV or BBC at teatime on a weekend.
★★★★
4 / 5
Matthew Tilt
X (Twitter) @Matthew_Tilt
