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Note: TIFF 2018 marks the first time I’m taking in selections from the TIFF Short Cuts Programme. In lieu of a full reaction piece that I usually post for a festival selection, I plan to underline what the film is about, and offer a brief thought or two on where the experience of watching the film took me. Enjoy! – RM

Do you really feel that’s a good idea?

DODGY DAVE is an English drug dealer, and one morning he is tasked with teaching his girlfriend’s pre-teen son the tricks of the trade.

As Dave makes his rounds, we are forced to confront the fact that bad people aren’t as bad as they seem…just as good people aren’t as good as they seem. The drug dealer may have been charged with making an innocent boy a fellow in his dirty dealings, but that doesn’t mean he takes any pride in it.

All the same, one could look at a school teacher that is shaping the same sorts of young minds at a local primary school. What sort of nefariousness does she get up to in her spare time?

Where is the line? How much bad is a good person permitted? How much good should we expect from a bad person.

What Charlotte Regan seems to want us to remember is that any child can be a quick study. Sure, a crook like Dave can appeal to a child’s more mischievous impulses…but if that’s true, than it must also be true that their virtues can likewise be inspired. If even over one afternoon, a criminal can coax misbehaviour out of a child, then likewise in one afternoon a good soul can inspire their virtue.

It all comes down to who we surround our children with…and why.

DODGY DAVE plays TIFF 2018 as part of Short Cuts Programme 2