Nick Love and Danny Dyer were a team back in the Noughties, making four films together in that decade. Marching Powder marked the first time they have worked together since 2007’s Outlaw.
Jack Jones (Dyer) is a middle-aged fuck-up. He is unemployed, a cocaine addict, a football hooligan, and his marriage with Dani (Stephanie Leonidas) is hanging by a thread. When Jack gets arrested for hooliganism in Grimsby, he gets a court order to turn his life around in six weeks or face a five-year prison sentence. All Jack has to do is find a job, repair his marriage, get sober, and take care of his bipolar brother-in-law, Kenny (Calum MacNab).
Love and Dyer rose to prominence with The Football Factory which was a hit in the UK. It was popular with the laddish audience of the period, but it was criticised for glorifying football hooliganism. Marching Powder acted as a spiritual successor to The Football Factory showing what life would be like for the characters 20 years later. They were losers who had failed marriages, if they married at all, spending all their time drinking, fighting, and taking drugs, and going to depressed towns across England since policing at lower league football games wasn’t as tough. Marching Powder was a story about a man being forced to grow up.
Lad culture was prevalent when Love and Dyer were at the height of their powers. It was a period when Zoo and Nuts Magazines were popular, objectifying and chasing women was even more accepted, and binge drinking was celebrated. However, their careers did hit a downward trajectory. In the late noughties and early 2010s, Dyer was trapped in straight-to-DVD hell until he was in Eastenders, and Love has had longer gaps between projects. Marching Powder is Love’s first film in 10 years.
I have met Nick Love, and he was a Jack-the-lad type. He was outgoing and friendly, so I can’t fault him on that front. Marching Powder did seem like an act of self-reflection for Love since he’s now in his 50s. Jack and his firm were a pathetic bunch who were living on past glories and still taking party drugs even though they should have quit a long time ago. Jack was someone who never amounted to anything, his father-in-law paid for his comfort (Geoff Bell), and in his 40s he lost his looks. The world has changed but Jack and his firm haven’t.
Marching Powder has been heavily advertised in the UK. The trailers and promos were shown often in the cinema, and it was marketed as ‘a rom-com with a kick.’ It ended up being more dramatic than expected. The film does look at some big topics. Hooliganism is no longer a big subculture, turning into an old man’s game. There weren’t younger generations of hooligans like in The Firm or The Football Factory. There was also a look at issues with modern masculinity, from mental health to generational and class clashes. Jack had a moment of humanity when he helped Kenny during a fit.
Marching Powder makes a point about how manhood has changed, and it held younger generations in contempt. Younger men were entitled man-babies who were disrespectful and used their education as a mask for their hypocrisy. Love’s politics leans to the right, at least in his films, and Marching Powder felt like it was made by someone who had been watching too much GB News.
The comedy in Marching Powder came in two flavours: edgy and swearing. This was a film that had a liberal use of the C-word that even Australian sailors would say was excessive. This was a film that had jokes like football commentary over a hooligan fight, calling Woking ‘Woke-ing’, and someone saying they would rather sleep with Harvey Weinstein. Some jokes were uncomfortable, especially anything involving Jack’s son, JJ (Arty Dyer) who was a budding psychopath. He blurted out things that were meant to offer shock humour, but it was unpleasant to hear a little kid say them.
Marching Powder was filled mostly with laddish types. It might appeal to Danny Dyer fans but his detractors will hate it. Leonidas as Dani was a standout since she was the only woman with a prominent role. Dani was resentful because she gave up her artistic dreams to become a full-time mother who was torn between love and hate for her husband. She was the most sympathetic character. I wanted to shout at her ‘Leave the twat.’
Marching Powder had some merit because of its attempt to look at middle-aged lad culture, so it is a step above the low-budget sludge that’s prevalent in the British indie film scene. But it was outdated because of its humour and outlook on life. It’s a film that can only really appeal to the last remanence of lad culture.
