Another blog entry but with something different...

Everybody and their mum's dogs have blogs these days, and it takes something special to stand out from the rest and I probably won't achieve such blog greatness, but blogging is a great method to release stress, tension, or just to get things off your mind.

Alas, I digress.

My blog is for my filmmaking journey, hopefully highlighting the road from my sleepy hometown of Langbank in Scotland to the twinkling lights of Hollywood within the next 5 to 10 years when I'm sitting late and night in my production office writing the script for "Night is Day 3 - This Time Jason Might Not Save The Day"...

However, I spend a lot of this blog complaining about the state of Scottish filmmaking (I'll save you the hassle of finding it, but basically I complain that there's too many films focussed on one or two genres, mostly depressing drama or zombies). So after seeing "Fast Romance" (click above, watch the trailer, be impressed) last night at it's Cineworld premiere (and Twitterer http://twitter.com/#!/Cnuneen telling me to do so) I decided to write a small review of this film.

So "Fast Romance", here we go. Starring Jo Freer, William Ruane and Lesley Hart. Directed by Carter Ferguson and written by Debbie May and James McCreadie. 93 minutes with the certificate TBC - I'd go with a 12A.

First things first, this is a low budget movie, shot on a microbudget (yet more of a budget than Night is Day) but that doesn't matter. This isn't a film concerned about over-the-top robot fighting destruction, or green aliens with decoder rings that can take on anything you think of (i.e. a toy car ramp or a machine gun), this is a film about love in Glasgow and how a group of friends try to find romance.

Big budget is not required to tell this story. So, that's out of the way.

Gordon (or "Gordo" to his friends), played by William Ruane, is a gamer who likes to play online with his friends and his brothers (nice little scene here to introduce his game-loving obsession btw) and works at the post office. Despite being constantly late, his boss, Kenny Cairns (a touching performance from Derek Munn) looks out for him and protects him from the main boss, Mr Braithwaite (played by Dave Anderson of "City Lights" fame).

Gordo is in love with Nadine (an energetic Jo Freer) who works at her family's Italian restaurant in the city and is looking for love, both for herself and to silence her overbearing mother who reminds Nadine on a daily basis that her sisters have found love no problem and that people are starting to talk about her.

Meanwhile Lorna (a flawless Lesley Hart) is having doubts about her upcoming marriage to her fiance, Terrence, and "copy girl" Fiona (Lynne McKelvey) is struggling to get the words out in our place of work thanks to man-eater Susan (Sarah McCardie) who is definitely the office bitch, and she plays it brilliantly.

While delivering the post, and avoiding spooky neighbour Mrs. Livingston (a nice cameo from Barbara Rafferty), Gordo finds a pen from Nadine with the words "Fast Romance" on it and discovers it's a speed dating club. Figuring Nadine will be there, Gordo sets out to go and find the courage to ask out Nadine once and for all.

Nadine convinces her friends Lorna and Fiona to keep her company on the speed-dating disaster.

I won't go into any more of the story from there as it'll spoil it, but everything changes from the speed-dating night. There are some great cameos in there and characters you won't forget. Our heroes lives are thrown upside down and events twist and turn before reaching a satisfying conclusion.

Additional props go to Simon Weir who plays Nadine's disastrous date at the start of the film, and James McCredie as Carlo, Nadine's confidante.

"Fast Romance" moves along nicely for it's 93 minute duration. It's got nice music from bands such as A Band Called Quinn and an original score by Nigel Dunn and Stephen Wright, which suits the movie's tone perfectly.

It's fun to spot places you actually know from living or have visited Glasgow but it doesn't detract from the film itself.

Yes there are a few problems with the movie, some of the sound is out of sync here and there, it's a bit too dark in places and some might say the story is wrapped up too quickly, but it's still a really good, enjoyable movie.

It's funny, it's heartwarming, sometimes genuinely sad and most importantly it's Scottish. Thankfully there are no neds in the film, for which I'd like to thank the filmmakers for, as Scotland isn't all about neds, zombies and ancient Scottish warriors fighting for freedom.

Hopefully this film will pave the way for a new generation of comedies, romances and maybe an action film too.

9/10.