Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Ed Helms, Lil Rel Howery, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Annabelle Wallis, Jake Johnson, Isla Fisher, Hannibal Buress, Nora Dunn, Steve Berg, Leslie Bibb, Rashida Jones, Indiana Sifuentes, Trayce Malachi, Jock McKissic, Thomas Middleditch.

We should never grow tired of being able to remember what it was to be carefree, of playing a game that would keep us on our toes and sharpens our wits, that made us become friends with those that we might see as different, more passionate and creatively devilish, than any of those that we come into contact later in life with. If we cannot play then how do we grow, the dull routine of staid and affected boredom is not one we should ever fall into, we should retain the sparkle of childhood, of those teenager years when someone slapped you on the back and run off claiming you were it.

It might sound silly, childish, full of the pomp and spectacle that comes with the earnestness of ritual, but if you think back, look past the seriousness of your age and the aching hole in your soul for the simpler life you have tossed aside, then Tag was the moment in which stands out as being the most instructive ways to learn about friendship and the wider implication of being one foot ahead of being caught out.

It could come as a surprise to find the American comedy Tag being the one to remind you of friendships past and the innocence of youth, after all American comedy doesn’t always come off well when it comes to the silver screen. Yet Tag does get to somewhere in the mind so that you find yourself smiling at the situations and planning to finally get your friend to be the one who is it. Across the board it is funny, a real treat of a film which doesn’t descend into ugliness, into the dynamic of the overbearing that can be associated with American film comedy over the last 25 years.

A large portion of this unusual trait should be put into the hands of the ensemble that dominates the screen, a working formula of those you might not necessarily think of as holding a comedy together, the excellent John Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Isla Fisher, Jake Johnson and Rashida Jones all giving a huge boost to the film with the way they perform, ones to whom it could be argued embrace the absolute pointlessness of becoming an adult and being hemmed in by responsibility.

Perhaps Tag works because it is simple, because there is no huge agenda, just a reminder of what life can be, a genuine bounce of pleasure.

An exceedingly enjoyable film, Tag comes out of nowhere and immediately steps into the comfortable shoes created by the greats.

Ian D. Hall