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Described as "hilarious, sophisticated and original" by one Mike Leigh, yet dismissed as "morally reprehensible" when submitted to the 2000 London Film Festival, Joe Tucker's jet-black comedy-thriller is bound to provoke a similarly polarised reaction from viewers.
Readers with a strong stomach may find "Lava" diverting, but others will no doubt consign it to the mounting pile of low-budget crime capers that have sprung up in the wake of "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels".
Supermarket worker Philip (Holmes) has one goal in life: to avenge the beating his brother received at an amusement arcade. On learning that the assailant is about to be released from jail, Philip persuades his lodger, Smiggy (Tucker), to assist him.
After buying a rusty pistol from Leslie Grantham's seedy Mr Aladdin, the pair turn up at their target's flat to find he isn't home. But his girlfriend is - and she's just stolen a kilo of cocaine from some volatile Jamaican Yardies.
It's never easy getting a first feature made, and Tucker deserves credit for creating such an eye-catching debut from clearly limited resources. He also elicits fruity cameos from Grantham and Tom Bell, while offering a multi-ethnic vision of Notting Hill that's a lot more credible than the yuppified utopia Hugh Grant lived in.
But other decisions are more questionable, like casting a real accident victim as Philip's brain-damaged sibling. Tucker's OTT performance, meanwhile, suggests his talents lie behind the camera, not in front of it.
