Marching Powder (2025)

Movie · 2025 · Action, Crime, Comedy, Romance · 1h 36m · English

Curator score: 0.4/10 (18.1K ratings)

A rom-com with a kick.

Overview

Middle-aged Jack, arrested for drugs, strives in six weeks to repair his marriage, curb a bullying in-law, and guide his stepbrother in the right direction, but all efforts fail as his life spirals further out of control.

Ratings

Director

Nick Love

Production

True Brit Entertainment

Cast

Danny Dyer, Stephanie Leonidas, Calum MacNab, Arty Dyer, Bailey Patrick, Lex Shrapnel, Janet Kumah, Geoff Bell, Philippe Brenninkmeyer, Dean Harrison, Dean Christie, Phillip Ray Tommy, Leon Dean, Daniel Fearn, Jennifer Lane, Jonathan Ralph Whittaker, Gurditta Singh, Stanley J. Browne, Del Cleveland, Declan Doyle

Curator Review

Verdict

A crude, reactionary crime-comedy with little dramatic payoff, more interested in lad-culture provocation than character growth. The tone and humor seem to alienate as many viewers as they entertain, and the film’s transphobic and bitterly retrograde attitude is a major liability.

Best for

  • Viewers specifically seeking abrasive British lad-comedy crime films
  • Fans of Danny Dyer’s harder-edged screen persona
  • People curious about controversial, low-brow cult bait

Skip if

  • You want smart crime comedy with actual character development
  • You’re sensitive to transphobic or mean-spirited jokes
  • You prefer films that evolve beyond macho posturing and pub banter

Overview

Marching Powder plays like a throwback to the ugliest strain of British geezer cinema: loud, crude, self-satisfied, and convinced that offensiveness is the same thing as wit. It follows a middle-aged man trying to fix his life, but the premise quickly gives way to repetition, bluster, and a worldview that feels stuck in the past.

Worth noting

The reviews suggest a film that mistakes provocation for personality, with the comedy landing as tired banter rather than sharp social observation. Even when it reaches for chaos or pathos, it seems to undercut itself with the same macho, resentful energy.

Bottom line

If you like your crime comedies ugly, aggressively local, and built around laddish swagger, there may be a sliver of appeal here. For most viewers, though, this looks more exhausting than entertaining, and more embarrassing than transgressive.

Top Letterboxd reviews

delia (2★) · 673 likes

DAY IN THE LIFE OF A TRUE BREXIT GEEZER 👴🏻 Wake up and meet the wife Susan 👵🏻 My little princess, isn’t she beautiful 👸🏼 Time to take George to Football ⚽️ Rev up the Bughatti wheyyyy 🚗 Quick stop at Toby’s and load up that plate 🍽️ Get a pint 🍺 Pitch looking lovely today lads 🏟️ Just a bit of banter 🤣 Chippy makes a 38-0 loss better 🐟 Pop down local pride, good old pie look at that 🥧 Susan made dinner, lovely 🍴 Pop down and have a couple pints with the lads 🍻🍻🍻

Sethsreviews (1★) · 416 likes

Diabolical. awful. a project created exclusively for middle-aged 3/4 short-wearing blokes who spend summer sat topless outside the local green king drinking Carling. As the great Thomas Gray once said, “All the lads. Lads, lads, lads!”

⋆.ೃ𖥔 ݁ ˖laura ⋆˚࿔ (1★) · 391 likes

had my head in my hands within the first 30 seconds

Jim Caddick (3★) · 314 likes

The 18+ warning at the start warned us about foul language, violence and sex references For a film literally named ‘cocaine’, luckily there weren’t any drugs

Joe Sutherland (1★) · 240 likes

Trainspotting for people who call people snowflakes

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Topics

British crime comedy, dark comedy, lad culture, toxic masculinity, social satire, marital strife, drug-fueled chaos, working-class drama, provocative tone, 2020s

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