Nerdly » ‘Sideshow’ Review

08th Mar2022

‘Sideshow’ Review

by Alain Elliott

Stars: Anthony Head, Les Dennis, April Pearson, Nathan Clarke | Written and Directed by Adam Oldroyd

I’m happy to admit I wanted to watch Sideshow based entirely because it starred Anthony Head and Les Dennis. I’m a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan, so I’ll watch pretty much anything with any of that show’s leads and I just thought it was such an odd pairing with Les Dennis that I had to see it. So here we are.

The poster and synopsis for Sideshow seem to lead towards this being promoted as a much more serious affair than it actually is. Which is slightly odd because although there’s a bit of darkness to the humour it would still benefit from people knowing there are plenty of laughs.

We see two criminals break into a (locally) famous psychic’s (Dennis) house looking for something more than just money. Unfortunately for them, they’re not very good criminals and are soon in for a night they won’t forget.

Mainly shot in a house, the director does well to keep the viewer interested and the movie has a really nice flow to it. There’s a couple of moments where it felt like there was a little too much speech and not enough action but they don’t last for long. You get invested in each one of the characters.

Although the script is strong and highly entertaining, it is the lead cast that make this a better movie than I expected it to be. Credit has to be given to the filmmakers who picked the main cast because neither of them are in what you would call obvious roles.

Head plays the psychics long time agent and ‘friend’. Although he’s clearly never been out of work, it is a little criminal that Head hasn’t had any other big roles. He’s fantastic in every scene here and has that natural charisma that you can’t teach. April Pearson is best known to many as Michelle in Skins (although horror fans might remember her in Fractured and more recently in The Kindred), in Sideshow she plays one of the criminals and hits all the right notes. It’s a mostly serious role and she’s another actor that you’ll be wondering why she isn’t more popular. Her partner in crime is played by Nathan Clarke. His character is a cliché that I generally dislike, the comedy guy that is too stupid to be real or relatable – here’s an ongoing joke about him failing to understand the word inconspicuous. But Clarke plays the role well enough that he actually gets plenty of laughs and the occasional moment of sympathy.

But maybe the biggest surprise is with Les Dennis – he’s really good here. Maybe I shouldn’t have been quite so shocked because he was very funny in Ricky Gervais’s Life’s Too Short. And although his comedic timing in Sideshow is very good, his performance is much more than that. So whether it’s drama or comedy, he does it all well.

That script throws in a couple of twists and turns to keep the viewer guessing right up to its excellent ending. Director and writer Adam Oldroyd might be best known for his kid’s TV work but with Sideshow he has shown that he is more than up to the task of creating a highly entertaining full feature film too. There are a lot of low budget movies released every single week but I recommend putting Sideshow at the top of your watch list. I’m sure you’ll be pleasantly surprised. It’s the dark comedy starring Les Dennis and Anthony Head you’ve been waiting for!