Tom May
Excellent film about the problem of alcoholism; a problem keenly felt in the director's native Scotland.There is an autobiographical veracity about the whole thing, plus an intimate knowledge and use of Edinburgh locations, and songs by the magnificent Glasweigan band the Blue Nile. McKidd is a revelation as the central protagonist Frankie, Laura Fraser is, as always, effortlessly sexy.Yes, the film is rather portentous in tone and spare in cinematic style, but that tends to suit the subject. 'Creepy and sad'? 'More dull dross from a pretentious Scotsman'? Such IMDb user criticisms seem ridiculously unjustified to me, though users have a point when they criticise the film's lack of continuity at times: the characters not changing in appearance or dress across more than a decade's time-span. It might be nitpicking, but I think these people have a point; it does kind of undermine the verisimilitude that Jobson is aiming for.Overall, though, a fine film from that hard-boiled, all-round renaissance man, Richard Jobson. It seems some of his subsequent films seem less promising; a shame, as this film suggests that he could make films up there with the better Neil Jordan fare.
dinoandscaly
This film was terrible. I have given it the high score of 2 as I have seen worse, but very few.From the clichéd start of having the end of the film at the start and going back to the start at the end this film used everything in the box of tricks used in film making just for the sake of it, like a kid with too many toys. There was the endless, boring repetitive narration, slow motion, freeze frame, flashbacks and merged images etc - none of which made a dull film any better.It is called "16 years of alcohol", but there was little drinking or drunkeness and no depiction of withdrawal with the film jumping about all over the place with no coherent sense. The story was badly written and extremely pretentious and the direction was equally poor and it is a shame that people have put up further money for more films by Mr Jobson, previously know for being in a rubbish group and on TV making as much sense as this film does.I found it a major struggle to see this to the end but in the hope of it getting better I carried on to the bitter but it really was a waste of time and I would have been better off not bothering.
t-mieczkowski
"Sixteen Years of Alcohol" is a beautiful parable about a Scottish man who grew up into human society's trap of alcoholism and violence. A boisterous, loud-mouthed wannabe droog, the main character (excellently played)'s short, tragic life is recounted in flashback. Beautifully shot, this Scottish film has not received enough critical praise for its very artistic take on the self-destructive lives we all lead. The soundtrack is haunting and mesmerizing, the performances well-staged and inspired. The title card of the American DVD reads "A Clockwork Orange meets Trainspotting"; while this film parodies the former, it runs much closer to the latter in its themes of self-destruction and isolation. "Sixteen Years..." is a great meditation on human frailty.
stensson
One can't say that Scottish films about the 70s come to often, but this is one time too many. Kevin McKidd does the Edinburghian skinhead, who can't fight his past (or maybe that is what he actually does, beating people up). The past is a father who cheats on his mother and the son who never really get involved, never takes part in anything.He is somewhat rehabilitated, or is he really? There is an intellectual narrator voice here in contrast to the violent acting of McKidd. Everything becomes too obvious, but that doesn't make things easier to understand.A failure and only halfway interesting.
AD
