Bigga Than Ben **** (2008, Ben Barnes, Andrey Chadov) – Movie Review

British director Suzie Halewood’s fresh and lively 2008 first feature Bigga Than Ben: A Russians’ Guide to Ripping Off London is extremely inventive, exuberant and brightly handled.

It features thoroughly likeable, expert performances from Ben Barnes and Andrey Chadov as Cobakka and Spiker, self-confessed ‘pieces of Moscow scum’ who come to London to better themselves and amass easy money. Barnes is especially charismatic, sustaining his Russian accent admirably and even holding his own in the vocal department against a real Russian.

But the alien land of London comes as a bad shock all round – cultural, social and every which way. And the lads soon find the only way to survive in London is to rip it off. Helped by dodgy Artash (Ovidiu Matesan) and his sidekick Spartak (Hero Fiennes-Tiffin), they learn to shoplift from supermarkets, rip off banks, joyride on the Tube and turn mobile phones into crack. But the highs of backstreet drug deals, chav nightclubs, refugees and nymphomaniacs begin to turn into lows. When the love-sick and home-sick Spiker gets addicted to drugs and Artash double-crosses both of them, Cobakka has to take action.

There’s plenty of provocative food for thought as well as entertainment value in this commendable low-budget, documentary-style film in two parts, both of them clever and extremely well observed. The first half is funny, and seems to owe a lot to Borat in its humour. Things turn serious in the second half, which is harder work but repays close attention. London has rarely seemed so alien yet so real.

This funny, fast and furious crime-driven dark comedy, based on the 1999 Russian novel, unfairly didn’t do well at the box office. Better handled at the publicity and distribution level, it could have been a real hit. But it made The Times Top 100 Films of 2008, won Best Comedy Feature at the Los Angeles DIY Film Festival, Best of the Fest at Edinburgh and was nominated for Best Feature at Austin Film Festival.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Movie Review

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