Description

Fairs, Fixed Games, and Failed Backhands – Islands (2024)

This week on Bad Dads Film Review, we’re off to the fair and then straight to the Canaries for a slow-burn midlife crisis with added camel corpse.

We kick off with our Top 5 Fairs – everything from sinister funfairs and pleasure islands that definitely aren’t safeguarding-approved, to world expos, tunnel-of-love metaphors, and the sheer horror of Simply Red – Fairground lodging itself in your brain for days. Along the way there’s a rollercoaster quiz nobody asked for, Orson Welles on a Ferris wheel treating people like ants, and the usual detours into Bruce Springsteen, Brighton Rock, and Tom Hanks getting magically statutory in Big.

Our main feature is Islands (dir. Jan-Ole Gerster), starring Sam Riley as a washed-up ex-tennis pro coasting through life as a resort coach in Fuerteventura. His days are a loop of hangovers, half-arsed lessons and meaningless flings… until a young British family arrive, bringing:

• A talented 7-year-old with a suspiciously decent backhand
• A magnetic, possibly femme-fatale mother who may or may not be telling the whole truth
• A lad-mag husband who promptly disappears after a night out

We dig into:

• Riley’s quietly brilliant, physically lived-in performance as a man sleepwalking through his own life
• The film’s sun-drenched, slightly haunted resort vibe – all sand dunes, empty courts and bad decisions
• Class, envy and the gap between “living the dream” and being totally stuck
• That unforgettable helicopter-lifted dead camel shot, and what it says about escape, failure and being in too deep

If you like your films low-voltage but tense, your characters deeply flawed, and your movie chat filthy, tangential and only loosely under control, this is a strong entry point into the pod.

Hit play, take a swing, and see if you make it off Trash Island for grown-ups.

You can now text us anonymously to leave feedback, suggest future content or simply hurl abuse at us. We'll read out any texts we receive on the show. Click here to try it out!

We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.

Until next time, we remain...

Bad Dads