Welsh Movie The Toll Exultant Recommendation! Long live international indies! I have to say that when a group of people pull together a script, and a crazy-assed idea off all by themselves, I just have to stand in applause and admiration. The Toll (or The Toll Booth, depending on who you ask) tells the story of Brendan… a solo tollbooth operator in the quietest toll booth in all of Wales. Brendan, who also happens to live in his booth, has something of a past, and it might just be catching up with him. He’s been here, working this remote location for decades, all to hide from a criminal element that have been very diligent about trying to find him over the years. And when they find him – the revenge he has been avoiding heads his direction.
First, I have to point out that this “official” trailer? Has 4,300 views. Hahahah. I mean!? How is that functionally possible?
So, yeah – this is definitely going to be a below the radar diamond in the rough. And I loved absolutely everything about this film. All of it. Sure, the editing was ambitious, REALLY ambitious, and didn’t quite always nail every punch. But man, they did more often than not. It’s a mixed-up cut more akin to Tarantino than Michael Bay. And that is about as high a compliment as I can make. But where can you watch this glorious film? I know, by now, you are just dying to throw your hard-earned greenbacks at this movie… so how? Click one of these fine online streaming solutions, and I’m certain that they will deliver these gorgeously rendered pixels to your browser with great aplomb and panache.
Deeper Spoiler Free The Toll Pitch?!? Why Sure.
The brilliance of this screenplay is in the way in which it is rocking horses, way back, and forth, over the same territory, all while showing the audience something new each time. The setup is simple… a Tollbooth operator, Brendan, who spends more time reading books about nothing than collecting tolls, is accidentally discovered by a bit of a criminal element from his past.
But, coincidentally, a local trio of gals are trying to become the new Bonnie and Clyde of the Instagram era, and have also mistakenly stolen Brendan’s watch (worth a quid and a half), his half-eaten chicken sandwich, and another 75 pence in tolls. The new Bonnie and Clyde trio have absolutely no idea who they’ve stolen from, and he wants “recompense, if not retribution…” Couple all of this with a young detective, the only one not on the take, who is determined to sort out this widening mess. Our detective, Catrin, is played by Annes Elwy – she is fantastic in this role… there is a sort of a Fargo-esque innocence about her. If she seems familiar? That’s because she should be – she was brilliant in the recent international mindjob The Feast. So, yeah, the trio of robbers, plus our toll booth operator’s old enemies, our determined detective, and this circlingly crazy editorial sequence prove to make a really great indie movie worth your time.
Did you watch The Toll? What did you think of it? Personally I thought it was affecting in all the right ways.
Edited by: CY