Almost ten years after his last production, Paul Andrew Williams, screenwriter of The Children (Tom Shankland, 2008) and director of Welcome to the Cottage (2008) returns to us with the ferocious and brutal Bull (2021), revenge movie violent and cynical in the heart of the English countryside presented last week at Hallucinations Collectives and very soon on Canal +.
This Bull marks the great return of Paul Andrew Williams in the thriller genre which goes wildly into a spin.
After his wife’s decision to leave him by taking her son away with her, the man known as Bull is almost put to death by the gangsters of his ex-wife’s family: the film begins with the return of Bull who wants to find his son and his determination is such that he is ready to face them all…
We tell you all this in our own way:
Life and Death of a Mafia Gang in the English Province.
A story of revenge, a teddy-headed villain (charismatic actor Neil Maskell) searches for all the other villains who hurt him years ago, including his stepfather who is also the leader of the gang .
If in addition the wicked stepfather has stolen his beloved son, we are in the middle of a Racinian tragedy.
With his sad eyes and his clumsy gait, we’ll give him the good god without confession, don’t be fooled, the guy has a very easy butcher’s sheet.
A film of hoodlums in a Ken Loach universe, why not.
The events in the past that caused this terrible revenge are gradually revealed. Bull initially proves quite impressive for Neil Maskell’s crusade-turned-killing-machine, but ends up boring with too much repetition.
The director uses in a beautiful way the provincial and green decoration of the English countryside and the luminous gleam of a Luna Park… and after…?
Afterwards, it slices and it squirts, nothing really new, alas, with the English Gangsters….