Review: You Instead (2011)

Director: David Mackenzie | 80 minutes | comedy, drama, music | Actors: Luke Treadaway, Natalia Tena, Mathew Bayton, Ruta Gedmintas, Alastair Mackenzie, Kari Corbett, Sophie Wu, Gavin Mitchell, Rebecca Benson, Al Green, Clare Kelly, Joseph Mydell

In “You Instead”, a group of angry punk girls get into a fight with an American pop duo at the festival where they both have to perform. A spreader of the word of God gets involved and chains the most angry girl, Morello (Natalia Tena), to the most angry rock star, Adam (Luke Treadaway). The steel of the handcuffs turns out to be unbreakable, and while arguing they move across the festival site. Ultimately, the two come to terms with their fate and make the most of it. They even seem to like each other very much …
The concept of handcuffs produces hilarious scenes: for example, what do you do if one of you has to go to the toilet? Both musicians also have their loves at the festival and that turns out to be difficult once it is bedtime. Of course it also results in the necessary quarrels and jealousies.

“You Instead” starts very smoothly, immediately the situation is clear, and because of this the middle part is very long and smeared. The film consists of many clichés, which is not so much negative, but very funny. Morello’s boyfriend, for example, is a banker, who cannot but be very boring and is completely out of context at the festival. Adam’s girlfriend is of course a top model, because all the big stars have models as girlfriends. She’s not very bright, and has obviously been addicted. The following characters are also not to be missed at the festival: the hippie, the drunken old man, the decorator and the mud fight people.

In between the story, overview shots of the festival site are always shown, as well as short pieces of performances and festival visitors. This makes “You Instead” very recognizable for every festival goer and will probably bring back the best memories. Ultimately, a lot of attention is paid to the festival, and it seems to be mainly about that. “You Instead” is an ode to festivals, as if the idea was first to make a film about a festival and the fraternizing atmosphere that often hangs there, and then a story was made up. The realistic images from the digital cameras are reminiscent of the festival registrations that can also be seen on the internet. This is an atmospheric portrait of a festival in Scotland, but it could have been any other festival. For people interested in festivals and music concerts “You Instead” is a very nice film, for people looking for an original or profound story it is a mediocre film.