For a movie that hits you like Father Christmas getting high on holiday, head to the beach where the sand is jet black with misdeeds, in the sun-drenched festive neo-noir Jet Trash, directed by Charles Henri Belleville, and written by Simon Lewis and Dan M Brown, based on Lewis’s novel. It’s Christmas Eve in Goa, with Lee (Robert Sheehan) and his mate Sol (Osy Ikhile), smoking a joint in the sand on a sunny beach. They are both far away from dreary old England, where Lee had worked selling drugs in a club owned by Marlowe (Craig Parkinson). Lee got Sol to participate in one of Marlowe’s shady schemes, in this case, marrying a foreign girl, Adeze (Adelayo Adedayo), to get her quick citizenship. When everything went a deep shade of evil at Marlowe’s pad, Sol and Lee fled to India to party.
“It’s Christmas Eve in Goa, with Lee and his mate Sol, smoking a joint in the sand on a sunny beach.”
Along with them is their friend, Mike (Jasper Paakkonen), who is on a spiritual journey, bedecked in robes with a shaved head. Lee hears from Shay (Raj Zutshi), the head man in the village they are staying in, that a woman they knew from Marlowe’s club, Vix (Sofia Boutella) is in Goa, looking for Lee. Lee assumes Vix just loves his doggie style, while Sol is more suspicious. Sol is also furious that Lee has acquired a large baggie of Molly for Christmas, to sell in smaller baggies to the good little boys and girls on the beach. Lee lets Sol know it is all good, that every little thing is going to be alright. That is, before Lee mucks everything up past the point of no return, with no way back to normal ever.
There needs to be a lot more movies like Jet Trash; movies that take you away to exotic locales spiced with underworld violence. This type of destination escapism was a classic attraction during the golden age of cinema. When I am searching for a movie to watch, I am drawn to faraway places that offer experiences closer to the edge of civilization. I want a film to whisk me away to someplace beautiful, where the rules are not enforced, and laws are on vacation. This is the type of world Jet Trash offers the weary audience member: a wave-splashed paradise with plenty of danger and drugs to keep things lively.
"…a lost modern wonder that comes out of the past to take over your viewing future."
