It’s not the psychedelic mind-blower that some critics say it is, but A Field in England gropes at the aesthetic in nice and grimy black-and-white. It’s a simple story that turns on an accidental mushroom trip had by a small band of dirt-caked deserters of the 17th century English Civil War. They traipse the countryside, eating mushrooms for food, and eventually run into an armed creep who forces them to dig up what he believes to be a buried treasure, all while they’re in a hallucinatory fog. They don’t know left from right, up from down and who among them is dead and who’s not. If you’re confused, so are the characters. Don’t worry about it.
It’s more of a warped suspense film than a piece of surrealism. It’s barely surreal at all, beyond a few editing tricks. The similarities to Alejandro Jodorowsky (whom I mention only because so many writers name-check him in their reviews of this) are superficial at best. When it’s over, you won’t be talking about God, nature, existence and the cosmos. Instead, you’ll be talking about the plot and how everything turned out, since director Ben Wheatley and writer Amy Jump are fine with keeping things ambiguous.
And all of that’s okay. This is a good movie full of charmingly crude and dark humor, convincing disorientation and expert low-budget filmmaking. It pulls you into its world. You can all but smell the stench off these hairy unwashed strays.