Dyer plays Jack, who with a rather alpha presence doesn’t let us forget that he is a middle-aged cocaine addict who indulges regularly in football riots, with his equally middle-aged cocaine addicted friends, in the name of his lower league football club- that is crying out for some premier league-esque anti-hooligan measures (Yes, it really is that unsubtle!)
The film has a solid plot with a network of strong supporting characters. Jack loves his wife Dani but a dutiful house-husband he is not. He doesn’t work, is financially supported by his father-in-law and has more than a few brushes with the law. It is one of these brushes with the law that leads to Jack being given an ultimatum- clean his act up or face prison.
This provokes many more moments where Dyer breaks the fourth-wall and talks to camera, in what could be argued as some of the most boisterous and outrageous moment in the last decade of British Cinema. Now, is this film the best thing that will ever grace the silver screen? Absolutely not! It is clumsy at times and the push towards “anti-woke” humour is unnecessary and uncomfortable. However, I do not think it deserves the grilling it has received so far in the mainstream press.
Dyer, I believe, has produced some fine work over the course of his career which is often overlooked by classist stereotyping and presumptions. Ask anyone who says they “can’t stand Danny Dyer”, why, and the shutters will come down. They often don’t have a valid answer.
Marching Powder, like much of Dyer and Love’s work resonates with a certain type of working class person. It highlights a type of alpha, working class redundancy that we all know, that we are all aware of and will will resonate with fans of other indie-Brit Pics, particularly Football Factory (also featuring Dyer and written by Love) and This is England.
In shining the light back on the working class, redundant alpha, this film is reminding people that these men do still exist.
From a young age, this type of laddish culture was something I knew all too well. I was raised on a diet of Soccer AM and second hand Carlsberg fumes. Therefore, strangely or perhaps more so incredibly I find this type of Brit-Pic rather comforting.
I know for a fact that I won’t be the only one. In shining the light back on the working class, redundant alpha, this film is reminding people that these men do still exist. It reminds people that this way of life is not squashed into a corner of an EastEnders-esque estate in Peckham.
It’s voicing the often silenced and marginalised, those who are often seen as invisible by society. With this in mind, the film will help remind the Football Factory generation that they have not been forgotten about. They still exist and that they still have life in them yet. So, yes, this film centres around a cocaine enthusiast with a love for football hooliganism. However, Marching Powder is a delight for those raised on Football Factory and This is England. Not only that but it reminds that very demographic that life may have only just begun.
Nick Love and Danny Dyer take a bow, for the sake of nostalgia if nothing else.