London Fields is awash with controversy. Starting in 2001, screenwriters and directors have been yearning to bring Martin Amis's prose to the big screen. When it was ready for release in 2015, director Matthew Cullen sued the producer's for using a cut he did not support. Barring it from festival viewpoint, the movie nope film was finally released in 2018, where it became a critical bomb. However you feel about Rotten Tomatoes as a system, establishing 0% as a grade shows that something went very, very wrong along the way.
And it needn't have been that way. Watching Cullen's vision, there is a measured picture of neo-noir nihilism at play here, detailing the turmoils and tyrannies Billy Bob Thornton's distressed writer undergoes, through a kaleidoscope of psychedelic images. A space craft hovers over the Johnny Nash single I Can See Clearly Now, juxtaposing a cylindrical journey into the outré. Thornton, laptop ridden and scared, brings a surprisingly nuanced performance, betwixt the pictures he sees of the irrepressibly beautiful Amber Heard. Admittedly, I am biased to director's cuts. Both Brazil and Batman V Superman benefitted hugely from their original vision, tarnished by shorter run times. Richard Donner's Superman II flew much better when shorn of the myriad gags. Blade Runner was a film more cryptic in tone when Ridely Scott re-cut the film, much to his fans delight. The same logic applies to Cullen, bringing a compelling tale to the screens.