16 Years of Alcohol
October 2005 Reviewed by: Josh Barber Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

The cover of 16 Years of Alcohol describes the film as "Trainspotting meets A Clockwork Orange," and the comparison is apt, to a point. While it is a story of the weaknesses brought about by addiction and violence, 16 Years lacks the frenetic pace of either of those other movies.

Taking a cue from films like Sunset Boulevard, the story is told in flashback, opening with Frankie (Kevin McKidd) at the end of a darkened alley, then taking us back to his childhood. Young Frankie adores his father (Lewis Macleod), but his happy world falls apart in a moment of infidelity. Frankie soon turns to drink despite his young age, and we jump forward a few years to find his a life of violence fueled by booze.

The connection between a child's first sips of alcohol and a teenager’s complete addiction is tenuous, requiring the audience to fill in some rather large gaps. Its message is nothing as extreme as the anti-drug propaganda in a film like Reefer Madness, yet some of the steps toward total dissipation seem to be overlooked.

While Trainspotting and A Clockwork Orange did indeed cover the same ground as 16 Years of Alcohol, they had a flashier style. Nevertheless, the more methodical pace that 16 Years takes to tell its tale pays off. 16 Years gives some real weight to an issue that deserves it.

The weaknesses the film does have are few. At times it tends toward the melodramatic, but its short running time, just over an hour and a half, keeps that from becoming overpowering. The constant narration is sometimes superfluous, with some of the information repeated only moments later in the dialogue.

Image quality is a bit low. While it's fine in indoor scenes, when the production goes on location, things get blurry. Still, it is never terribly grainy or pixelated. The film is dialogue-heavy, but the soundtrack presents it and the omnipresent score very well.

Writer/director Richard Jobson based 16 Years of Alcohol loosely on his own experiences, and his commentary track is quite candid. He discusses the writing and direction of the film, and he's worth listening to. "Behind the Scenes" seems like a typical making-of, as it features cast and crew interviews and scenes from the filming. While the set-up is similar, this 25-minute piece is more impressive than the glorified promotional spots that we usually get on DVDs. "How It Began" presents the final audio track and the initial storyboards for the film. This is a feature that's growing in popularity on DVD, but I still can't bring myself to watch an entire film in nothing but storyboards. Still, it's a nice feature for future filmmakers and avid buffs -- others will want to just skip ahead to favorite scenes and see where they came from. Though there's no trailer for 16 Years on the disc, there are previews for a few other small films, the most well known of which is the documentary Super Size Me.

There's no escaping the comparisons to Trainspotting and A Clockwork Orange, particularly when the film itself seems to try so hard to bring them up. If you liked those films, it's worth checking out 16 Years of Alcohol -- just don't expect a raging, energetic romp to go with your dark story.

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