Back To The Garden review

Some friends return down a familiar path

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Largely improvised by its cast of unknowns and sparingly shot by director Jon Sanders ( Late September ), this zero-budget drama follows widow Julia (Anna Mottram) as she mourns the death of her theatre director husband.

While a small circle of close friends and acting acquaintances prepare to gather at her house for a final send-off in the back garden, their various dramas come to the fore and threaten to ruin the get-together.

Despite sporadically interesting meditations on life and death, Sanders’ kitchen-sinker often drags its heels as the cast talk in frustratingly aimless circles.

The pace picks up towards the end, but whether you’ll still care by that point is another matter.

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Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.