听 User Rating 
When you read about the mix of bull-headed determination and utter agony of first-time film-makers as they try to secure the involvement of actors, crews, and assorted mums who might turn up with sandwiches (with hopefully everyone working for free, or at least a few notes), you really do feel for them, aware that a few barbed words could send them back to their jobs at Burger King. But sometimes, barbed words are the only ones that apply.
In the case of Darren Fisher, the director of "Inbetweeners", I was sent a list of facts and figures which illustrates both his struggle and keenness. On the one hand, lack of money meant Fisher working on an editing machine in a tiny kitchen at Ealing Studios for nine months, and kept his cast alive on Pot Noodles; on the other, he is young and peppy enough to issue a list of his favourite directors, actors, and films.
And so to "Inbetweeners", an attempt to capture the stupidity and inanity of a group of first-year students at a British university. The students all share a corridor in a hall of residence, with the two main males being regularly advised by a final-year student who has a perpetual air of know-it-all, done-it-often smugness.
Although the film gives off the authentic odour of student behaviour, and Fisher gets his cast to do just what he wants, he shows little idea of how to shape a film. It is simply too elongated, too episodic, with little camera movement meaning that too many scenes are shot flat. Even a film about dull student routines needs an occasional dramatic lift. But this one's stuck on the ground floor.
"Inbetweeners" is due out in cinemas on 18th May 2001.
