Christie Malry’s Own Double Entry

If the title is strange, the remainder of Peter Tickel’s 2000 film is equally bizarre, adapted from the cult novel by BS Johnson to shocking, often amusing affect. Nick Moran is Christy Malry, a mild-mannered mother’s boy who makes his living in London as an accountant. He devises a book-keeping trope in which he attempts to balance the wrongs and rights of society, and takes things into his own hands with explosive results in the style of Fight Club. Shirley Ann Field plays Christy’s mother, and the whole thing has a prescient, pre September 11^th feel, with Tickel’s film quite ambivalent about Malry’s destructive plans. An unconventional, visionary work, there are obvious reasons why this film was not seen by mainstream audiences, but lovers of the arcane will be fully rewarded for seeking it out. Music by Luke Haines.