"Colin Burstead is spectacularly well-written, Wheatley's dense, rapid-fire dialogue packed with laughs and crafting a believable family dynamic." – Jack Blackwell, One Room with a View
"With Happy New Year, Colin Burstead, Ben Wheatley has crafted a very funny, very real family drama that shows a simple universal truth: all families are weird." - Sean Fallon, Film Inquiry
"Ben Wheatley strips things way back for his nerve-raddled family reunion comedy, and the result is one of his best, most fluid films." - Variety
Colin Burstead (Neil Maskell) has hired a heritage mansion for a New Year's Eve party for his extended family and various hangers-on, with his own wife Val (Sura Dohnke), teenage daughter Fran (Nicole Nettleingham) and infant son Jamie in tow. A few little tensions and dramas leading up to the festivities are then overshadowed by the return of Colin's black sheep brother David (Sam Riley) to the family fold after an absence of five years, along with his German girlfriend Hannah (Alexandra Maria Lara). Invited by their sister Gini (Hayley Squires) as what she thinks will be a nice surprise, backfires as Colin then finds himself less than welcome, and not just to his ex-wife Paula (Sarah Baxendale) – however, over the course of the evening, his presence will shift the family's power dynamics.
Awards:
Nominee, Best Editing, British Independent Film Awards, 2018
Nominee, Best Film/Official Competition, London Film Festival, 2018
Nominee, Audience Award/Open Horizons, Thessaloniki Film Festival, 2018
Tickets are available here online, or at the Uptown Theatre on the day of screening. Box office opens 1 hour before showtime.
This program is sponsored by Busch Systems, Digital Giants, Netgain, Jennifer Klementti Photography, The Peggy Hill Team - Re/Max Hallmark Peggy Hill Group Realty, Pilatez.ca, Restorations by Rodgers/Renovations by Rodgers, Stewart Esten LLP, Storage Mart, Venable Park Investment Council Inc., ZuZu Fashion Boutique