WITH PART-FINANCE COURTESY OF Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien, writer-director Giles Borg’s warm, funny, perceptive look at the pleasures and pangs of forming a band is a low-key treat. Divided into subtitled vignettes, or tracks, this eschews the sex and drugs as bookish geek Stevie (a likable Ian Bonar) tries to keep his band, 1234, together in the face of musical differences with older guitarist Billy (Kieran Bew) and a connection with foxy bassist Emily (Lyndsey Marshal).
As well as being a refreshing, cliché-free look at the grassroots indie circuit, 1234 is good on the boredom of menial jobs taken to finance dreams and, with Bonar and Matthew Baynton, a touching, believable look at male friendship. It is slight and Borg doesn’t totally nail the ending, but this says something true about a generation who strive without fully knowing what they’re striving for.