Payback Season Review: Woefully Inadequate Cinematic Debut
The story of one young man's rise from the gutter of inner city London to the glory and glamour of life as a pro footballer.
It's payback season. As unbelievable as this sounds when said aloud, this is an actual line from Danny Donnellys woefully inadequate cinematic debut. Kicking off with some rather obvious cutaways of a footballer who clearly isn't Adam Deacon performing keepy uppy, Payback Season is the story of one young man's rise from the gutter of inner city London to the glory and glamour of life as a pro footballer. Jerome Davies (Deacon) has been anointed as the new wunderkind of English football, and as such he's been rewarded with all of the superficial trappings that go hand in hand with this title. Davies is still keeping it real though, and regularly returns to the estate he grew up on to hang out with his family and friends. While his bona fide family want none of the excess his new life can afford, his blud brothers take a different approach to Davies new found success; with childhood mentor Baron proving to be the most demanding. As Davies tries to keep his head in the game, Baron has other ideas for his friends freshly acquired wealth. 
Founder of drum and bass label Suburban Base Records, Donnelly moved into the UKs independent cinema circuit two years ago when setting up Pure Film Productions. Payback Season is his directorial debut and the entrepreneurs sure touch behind the camera means you'll appreciate the way his film looks and feels. Theres the now typical stylised slow motion fight sequence set against a pounding soundtrack, the shaky cam shot of our protagonists face as his world is turned upside down and some smooth tracking shots of Londons inner city skylines. Of course, none of this really matters as the script is so god damn awful. Some scenes are so poorly conceived they prompted universal laughter from the aisles of the Covent Garden premiere, none more so than the brainless moment Deacons protagonist storms into a hospital repeatedly shouting out the first name of a friend whos in intensive care. As though he expected him to holler back. Jerome Davies appears to be the first non playing footballer on the entire planet and the clichéd characterisation of his narrative arc is far too formulaic. He wins the girl he sets his eyes on, convincing this at first reluctant date through nothing more than a charmless phone call, and the hackneyed notion of using alcohol to convey Davies torment is so tired. With the exception of Davies and his former crews realistic dialogue, not one single character in Payback Season is believable in their actions or motives. Which is a shame as the story of an inner-city youth who escapes his roots through their talent and hard work, and the struggles they face in reconciling their past with the future, is one worth telling. 
Bafta award winning actor Adam Deacon is decent enough as our eponymous hero. Although, unless he starts taking on roles that require a little more of himself than his by now predictable urban youth characters, hell fast turn into a low brow version of Hugh Grant and his one trick acting show. David Ajala will leave the most lasting impression on you as Baron, along with several other minor characters in Payback Season. His composed demeanour before switching to pantomime villain rage is the most striking performance, but Ajalas character is still two dimensional and far too well groomed to be taken seriously as an intimidating presence. Theres even a cameo role for Sir Geoff Hurst, Englands last and only true footballing icon, to woodenly portray Davies football agent. Hursts footballing career was synonymous with his world cup final winning hat-trick against West Germany and the immortal line of commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme. As far as Danny Donnellys scriptwriting career goes, Id say its all over for him too. 
Payback Season is UK Cinemas right now.