Like the dod­der­ing sex­a­ge­nar­i­an at the cen­tre of its plot, Chick­en Town lum­bers along, fre­quent­ly mis-step­ping and fluff­ing its lines. It’s a dull, eye-roll-induc­ing half-way house of a film, nei­ther a bit­ing, black com­e­dy nor an uplift­ing, whim­si­cal jaunt. British com­e­dy roy­al­ty Gra­ham Fel­lows stars as Kev, who teams up with teenagers, Paula (Amelie Davies) and Jayce (Ethaniel Davy) to sell the weed he’s acci­den­tal­ly grown in his allot­ment. The few sin­cere inter­ac­tions between this cen­tral trio are the sole high­lights of the film, as Fel­lows’ com­e­dy tal­ents are wast­ed in a flim­sy script.

Chick­en Town bites off more than it can chew as a small-town, crime caper quick­ly spi­rals into con­flict with the pow­er­ful fam­i­ly at the heart of the town’s liveli­hood and a seri­ous of increas­ing­ly ridicu­lous acts of vio­lence. How­ev­er, instead of pour­ing effort into pro­vid­ing any stand­out, laugh-out-loud gags, the writer/​director over­ly relies on these sud­den but brief moments of inten­si­ty to liv­en up his film. The less said about the racial prej­u­dice lev­elled at Jayce’s friend, Lee Matthews Jr (Ramy Ben Fredj), the bet­ter. It’s taste­less, cru­el, and painful­ly lazy. Come film’s end I was ready to high­tail it out of Chick­en Town as fast as I could.