The Whip

There are a couple of performances that feel more wooden than the panelling in the chief whip’s office. But the film, directed and co-written by Christopher Presswell, is likable enough.

The gang that Sadie assembles, lured not by cash but by the idealistic urge to topple a government and remake society, seem too pie-in-the-sky for the slicker dynamics of the heist movie to really work.

Neither a satire nor a Ken Loach-style takedown, it's an engaging low-budget heist comedy pitting average people against the halls of power.

If Presswell falters with scenes of sentiment, he is precise in evoking the crushing sense of helpless rage that bureaucracy engenders. His dissection of absurdities great and small is flawless, his dialogue stinging as it slices with surgical precision.