Mojo – 1997 | 90 mins | Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Adapted from his far more successful stage play, Jez Butterworth’s fast-paced but rather patchy gangster movie has been likened to a garish 1950s Soho version of Quentin Tarantino. You can see the point: flashy, design-heavy and loaded with energetic camera trickery.

Would-be rock ‘n’ roll star Silver Johnny (Hans Matheson) is on the road to fame and fortune during the summer of 1958 but encounters problems with his jealous gay manager, Ezra (Ricky Tomlinson), the owner of the seedy Atlantic Club who is hell-bent on protecting him from the amorous advances of creepy local gangster/entrepreneur Sam Ross (Harold Pinter). Skinny (Ewan Bremner), a member of Johnny’s group, discovers Ezra sawed in half in separate dustbins, and Ezra’s ambitious associate Mickey (Ian Hart) announces that Ross intends to take care of Silver Johnny. Erza’s neurotic son, Baby (Aidan Gillen), smells a rat and sets out to track down his father’s killer and the missing music protégé.