THE FESTIVAL: Field Of Dreams & Nightmares

The end of The Inbetweeners was heavily mourned by the British public. So much to the extent that not one but two movies were produced to satiate the public’s thirst for more. The proof is in the receipts; The Inbetweeners 2 was the third highest grossing film in the UK in 2014, ahead of the beloved Paddington and all the superhero movies released that year.

The series’ co-architect Iain Morris returns to the helm for The Festival, rolling into cinemas at the heart of the music fest season, and it’s another solid entry in his filmography. There’s seldom gonna be an audience member who won’t speak of this movie and The Inbetweeners in the same breath and, whilst it doesn’t hit the heights of Inbetweeners, The Festival is appealing enough on its own merits.

AKA Simon and Tara

Brought back to the forefront are Joe Thomas and Hannah Tointon, still known better as Simon and Tara (and also an IRL couple), picking up right where their Inbetweeners counterparts left off by playing another dysfunctional pair of lovers, also afflicted in the bedroom. This is Nick and Caitlin. They soon split up, causing Nick to spiral down into emotional turmoil. His best mate Shane (Hammed Animashaun) suggests that the cure for heartbreak is to go to an epic music festival. After some deliberation, Nick agrees and they set off on the bus, where they’re approached by Amy, a lone Aussie traveler who’s been attending the festival for years.

Amy just wants to make friends. Shane just wants to see his favourite DJ. Nick is motivated by the prospect of getting back with Caitlin rather than getting over her, but his dreams are dashed when he notices her hooking up with the cool American, Pirate (Kurt Yaeger), in their camp. The stage is set for another Inbetweeners-ish outing, complete with cringe comedy, painfully real relationship woes, wacky characters (one heavily intoxicated festival goer repeatedly runs up to Nick and screams “HARRY POTTER!”) and another dance scene – though the lack of memorable music, choreography and awkwardness in this one places it below the majestic “We No Speak Americano” sequence of the first Inbetweeners movie.

Pre-existing fanbase will be pleased

Morris’ brand of comedy – very lewd and very British – has successfully captured an entire generation, and if you aren’t a part of it, high chances are The Festival won’t win you over. Jokes revolved around body fluids and other fluids are aplenty. The horrors of relationships are fodder for humour again, with the punchlines foreseeable in Pirate’s peg leg and Nick’s hook-up attired as a Smurf. As with the hit sitcom, there are gonna be times where you’ll be watching through your hands whilst laughing; there’s a nipple ring incident that’s particularly excruciating. The prosthetics and makeup team should be singled out for their first-rate work – it’s revolting and riotous.

But how good is the representation of a typical British music festival? There’s a lot of truth in this depiction: drugs, debauchery, tent adventures and copious amounts of mud offer pleasures both nostalgic and hilarious. However, for a cinematic experience, The Festival exists in a heightened reality so the climax of the film is purely vicarious. It’s totally unrealistic but it’s a perfect fantasy.

Curiously, a lot of the experience of listening to a musical act doesn’t exist in The Festival, which prefers to focus on Nick doing just about everything else except seeing the performances. Maybe that’s just the reality for so many festival goers and their relationship with festival acts, caring less about who they saw than how they saw it.

The Festival: Conclusion

The Festival is highly in the spirit of The Inbetweeners so fans will have fun watching Joe Thomas playing a very similar character run the trial of hysterical misfortunes, except this time at a music festival. It may have worked better as a threequel because, whilst Simon’s persona is largely kept intact in Nick, audiences will still miss Will, Jay and Neil – whose presence would have created amazing comic potential – but screenwriters Keith Akushie and Joe Parham understand Iain Morris’ signature brand of humour well enough and the director/writer combo is mostly successful.

The Festival can’t get out of the shadow of The Inbetweeners, but it’s well worth a watch for all fans of the series.

What did you think of The Festival? Let us know in the comments below!

The Festival is out in UK cinemas now. Release dates for the USA and other countries have yet to be confirmed. To keep track of international release dates, click here.