The taut script and one-shot cinematography build tension terrifically in the first half. Like Philip Barantini’s BOILING POINT, it feels as if the rooms are filling up with too much gas and will inevitably burst into flames. This rising tension underscores the film’s expression that all of this is important: even a regional hairdressing competition is life or death to the people in it because it matters to them. As Cleve (Clare Perkins) says, they may not have A-Levels but they can cut hair and that makes all their emotion, all their tension, all their rage and all their love justified.