Brendan Muldowney’s feature debut Savage is an unflinching look at the violent world we live in, and the lengths that can be reached for masculinity. Savage has been spoken about as being a ‘revenge film’, which on the surface it is, but underneath it is something much more, a powerful investigation of our contemporary culture which, Muldowney suggests here, utilizes violence and ignorance in equal measure.
Savage follows our protagonist Paul Graynor, played by Darren Healy. Graynor is a shy, slightly-too-mild-mannered press photographer who, we assume, could not be more alienated in the world he moves in. Graynor soon becomes the victim of a vicious assault and finds himself out of control and the sudden subject of the flash bulbs he previously thought nothing of. Savage is a bleak emotional rollercoaster which begins at the end and then somehow leaves us somewhere we never expected.
Director Muldowney and producer Conor Barry are set to become Ireland’s new visual dream-team as they succeed in what many Irish films have failed to do of late. The duo have taken a shoe-string budget and a four week long shooting schedule and created a piece in which nothing is lost or omitted. The genius of this film, and where others have fallen, is in the manner in which Muldowney refuses to let the audience off the hook. As much as we want to turn away from the man our hero has become, we are incapable of keeping our eyes from his.
There are ultimately two Paul Graynors within the film, the one which we have just met, is forever lost once he takes a razor to his long locks. Healy gives a masterful performance here. He twista his facial and bodily expressions in a manner reminiscent of Taxi Driver. The only down side to Healy’s screen magnificence, is that all other characters fade into the background. Nora-Jane Noone gives a solid performance, but falls flat alongside Healy.
In Savage, there are no rose-tinted glasses provided and we must simply follow our anti-hero through his tumbling layers of alienation. Savage is a film with so much heart, be it broken or whole, that it is impossible to resist watching. It is a movie which plays on our emotions and ultimately abandons us to make our own decisions. Our creators clearly know their way around the confines of film-making in Ireland, and what we have here is about as perfect an example of low-budget Irish film-making as it gets. Something tells me that Muldowney and Barry won’t have the barrier of small budgets for very long.
Savage is, as its title proclaims, not for the faint hearted. If you think you’re up to the journey, it is not to be missed.
Meryl Streep portrays a gigantic woman made of an iron/titanium alloy that proceeds to destroy Britain until she is befriended by a small boy who gifts her a magical cobalt suit which frees her spirit from its iron prison.
