Turnout turned out quite ok

Sophie and George come from too different environments. She is a middle class girl who goes to work in the City every day, has sushi for a lunch and shops at Mark Jacobs. George lives in a council building with his mum, drinks with his mates while Sophie is at work, and deals drugs. Weed mainly.
Sophie wants to go for a holiday to Barbados, and so they have been saving some money to go. George stops being enthusiastic as soon as the letter informing them to pay the rest of the sum with a deadline appears. George doesn't have a job. And the weed he sells doesn't bring enough money.
Gerge decides to take the money Sophie has been saving and invest it into some new type of cocaine (cheaper mix with novocaine) and earn more money on that. Of course the plan is stupid, and George is being fucked by each one of his friends repeatedly and remains with nothing.

Is this a film about the relationship between Sophie and George? How from happily in love they turn into untrusting and paranoid couple? Or is it a story how drugs destroy love and how you can't keep too if you really care about one? Is it a story of how living in a big city doesn't guarantee successful life? How you can be on the top but be digging your own grave every night? How there's no such thing as real friends when you are dealing with illegal? What is this film about?

It could be about anything. Plot wise this film is just confusing. It could have been a tragic love story and as we know, it worked before in the US (Requiem for a Dream), it could have worked here if the chance was given. Throughout the whole film I have been thinking that it would have been so much more interesting if the story was told from Sophie's point of view. even though he is less involved with all the exciting drug action, her character is much more identifiable for me and so much more interesting than George. Because her story is just a story of her relationship, it's much more subtle and easy to relate to. And the way this story is shot is simply beautiful.

Interestingly, Lee Sales both directed and co-wrote this film. I have to say that based on Turnout, he should focus on directing only. As the director, he makes amazing choices of shots, his wide shots are simply beautiful and Sophie's '60s type filming is very classy. when he directs George's life, the camera is handy, shaky and claustrophobic. Every shot is so well thought and the film is because of it engaging and fascinating to look at.

Script on the other hand is just confusing. There is too much focus on minor characters, the story seems too general and there's not enough time for characters to develop. It surely will bring Hoxton indie audience to cinemas, but when Sophie and George look both like in their mid thirties, I'm not sure if many hipster twenty year olds will actually be persuaded by it.

Turnout wasn't bad, but wasn't balanced enough to be seen as good. The direction is definitely worth seeing and in future maybe it's good to keep your eye on Lee Sales. But please, don't make more audience-driven films. Just do it for yourself.