---
title: "Bait"
year: 2019
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/bait"
fi1m_score: 84
critics_score: 86
critics_reviews: 11
published: "2026-09-17T09:21:57.741547+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-17T09:22:09.684240+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Bait (2019)

Directed by Mark Jenkin · 1h 29m · MPA NR · Drama

**Fi1m score: 84** · Critics 86 from 11 reviews

*In a sentence:* A Cornish fishing village where even the film stock seems in a bad mood

> Mark Jenkin’s Cornish drama makes its class conflict felt through rough monochrome images, dislocated sound and Edward Rowe’s grounded performance. We recommend it, with a warning that the insistent editing sometimes gets ahead of the people.

## Synopsis

In a contemporary Cornish fishing village, Martin Ward (Edward Rowe), Sandra Leigh (Mary Woodvine) and Steven Ward (Giles King) face the pressures of a place increasingly shaped by visitors. Tim Leigh (Simon Shepherd) is also caught in the friction between established residents and newcomers. The village is a workplace and a home, but it is also somewhere outsiders want to claim for themselves. As tourism and gentrification change the community, questions of class and belonging enter its everyday encounters, and those who depend on the place find their needs competing with those who come for the view.

## Review

[*Bait*](https://film.one/tv/bait-2026) makes a Cornish fishing village feel like a place where an ordinary conversation can become a dispute about who has the right to stay. Mark Jenkin’s drama is angry, funny and worth the effort its abrasive style asks of us. It takes the friction between residents and gentrifying outsiders seriously, without reducing everyone involved to a spokesperson for their side. There is plenty of awkwardness and wounded pride here, and enough humour to make the arguments uncomfortable in several ways at once.

Edward Rowe, playing Martin Ward, is the chief reason to stay with it. He makes the anger understandable without making it particularly welcoming, and the performance remains recognisably human when the filmmaking is at its strangest. The humour matters here: resentment is not always expressed with dignity, and the film is willing to notice that. It is good to find a social drama that takes people seriously while allowing them to be difficult company.

As cinematographer, Mark Jenkin shoots in black and white on 16mm, and the hand-processed image carries scratches and visible damage. That could be a tiresome display of artistic seriousness, but the roughness suits a community whose daily life is being made uncomfortable. The coast is spared the smooth finish of a sales photograph. We felt uneasy watching those battered images while hearing speech added afterwards. The disconnection makes even familiar human voices sound slightly out of place.

The editing, also by Mark Jenkin, gives that unease a rhythm. Shots jolt against one another, and the fractured cutting prevents us from settling comfortably into the disputes. It makes us attend to the images individually, although sometimes we would rather stay with a person for longer than the film allows. Mark Jenkin also supplies the music, which is effective company for the troubled images, though the displaced quality of the dialogue stays with us more insistently than the score.

There is a cost to this approach, and the film occasionally makes us too conscious of the work being done to trouble us. A jolt in the cutting can arrive with such insistence that we notice the technique before the person. The rough image and detached sound also leave little room for ease; anyone who finds them mannered will have a long evening. We think the method works, but a few stretches would benefit from letting an exchange proceed without so much pressure.

Social dramas about threatened communities can become dutiful, with each person required to represent a side. *Bait* is better when it catches the less flattering feelings involved in belonging somewhere: pride, suspicion and the wish to decide who gets let in. The contemporary setting matters, because the old-looking images might otherwise encourage us to treat this as a complaint about a vanished way of life. These people are dealing with changes happening around them, and the film refuses to make their village reassuringly picturesque.

The 89-minute running time helps, although this is not a film that feels in any hurry to make itself agreeable. We recommend it for the people whose anger and awkwardness make all that formal effort worthwhile. Choose another seaside film if what is needed tonight is fresh air and a rest.

*Fi1m score 84, published 17 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

The consensus on Bait is strongly positive, with all eleven reviews praising its account of class friction in a Cornish fishing village. Praise centres on Jenkin’s hand-crafted black-and-white 16mm images, fractured editing and post-synchronised sound. Most critics see these techniques as closely tied to the story’s displacement and misunderstandings, rather than as decoration. The reviews also value its treatment of gentrification, while Time Out singles out Edward Rowe’s performance for its humanity.

The differences are chiefly matters of emphasis and enthusiasm: the supplied reviews contain no recurring reservation or negative dissent. Some stress the unsettling atmosphere and experimental filmmaking; others find comedy, social observation and solid storytelling beneath the scratched images. Variety particularly praises the refusal to simplify community tensions. Ratings range from measured approval to full marks, but the shared judgement is that the unusual technique serves a recognisable, contemporary conflict.

### Reviews we read (11)

- **Empire**, Sophie Monks Kaufman (90/100, inferred): The critic calls Bait a triumph that illuminates social rifts through a Cornish fishing community's tensions with gentrifying outsiders. Jenkin's distinctive 16mm black-and-white technique and post-synced sound create an immersive, tactile atmosphere that blends comedy, humanity and timely themes into a timeless work of art. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/bait/)
- **Screen Daily** (90/100, inferred): The critic notes the film's nostalgic yet contemporary take on Cornish communities under threat, praising the ravishing cinema and the unusual meeting of form and social context. It mentions the atmospheric black-and-white images and the sense of rediscovered tragedy. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/bait-berlin-review/5136502.article)
- **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (90/100, inferred): Jenkin’s breakthrough is a richly textured, rough-hewn gem in which form and content combine perfectly, an authentic portrait of tensions between locals and tourists in a Cornish fishing village. The post-synched sound and hand-processed 16mm visuals create a dreamlike, disorienting effect that underscores themes of misunderstanding and displacement. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/sep/01/bait-review-mark-jenkin-cornish-fishing-village)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Stephen Dalton (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's lo-fi monochrome 16mm aesthetic and experimental style as one of the most original works at Berlin. It singles out the director's use of montage, retro pastiche, and folk-horror elements to explore class tensions in a Cornish fishing village. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/bait-review-1188293/)
- **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★★★☆): This Cornish-set drama unfolds in scratchy monochrome with jumpy shots, delivering solid storytelling alongside captivating silvery images from hand-cracked 16mm film and DIY development. The result is a beguiling, otherworldly atmosphere perfectly suited to its theme of displacement. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/business/companies-markets/article/bait-review-captivating-images-forge-otherworldy-atmosphere-dn5k6fptv)
- **Time Out**, Phil de Semlyen (4/5): The review calls it a brilliantly original seaside parable and a quietly thrilling piece of filmmaking with a brooding atmosphere. It singles out the human performance from Edward Rowe and the deeper currents of gentrification and class friction. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/bait)
- **Variety**, Jessica Kiang (80/100, inferred): The critic finds the film's archaic 16mm black-and-white style an engaging, hand-crafted experiment that heightens its story of a Cornish fishing village facing gentrification and the clash between tradition and modernity. She singles out the nuanced, non-simplistic observations of community tensions and the striking, simple imagery for praise. [Read](https://variety.com/2019/film/reviews/bait-review-1203137995/)
- **Sight and Sound**, Ian Mantgani (70/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's unique, hand-crafted style and its exploration of social tensions in a Cornish fishing village through a grubbily powerful study of fear and loathing. It highlights the original filmmaking that blends various genres into something distinctive. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/bait-first-look-mark-jenkin-heralds-new-weird-britain)
- **HeyUGuys**, Linda Marric (5/5): The critic praises the film's unique 16mm visual style and original storytelling about class conflict in a Cornish fishing village, highlighting its mesmerizing and unsettling aesthetic. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/bait-review/)
- **Eye for Film**, Andrew Robertson (4.5/5): The critic lauds the film's astonishing cinematic qualities, blending nostalgia with modern elements through its 16mm black-and-white cinematography and authentic portrayal of Cornish life and class tensions. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/bait-2019-film-review-by-andrew-robertson)
- **The Skinny**, Jamie Dunn (★★★★): The critic praises Jenkin's innovative hand-shot and edited 16mm black-and-white melodrama for capturing class tensions and gentrification in a Cornish fishing village through striking sound design and Eisenstein-like juxtapositions. They single out the battered, decayed aesthetic and fractured editing as a triumph of old-school technique applied to timely social issues, calling it the UK's first Brexit movie. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/bait)

## Details

- **Director:** Mark Jenkin
- **Director:** Mark Jenkin
- **Screenplay:** Mark Jenkin
- **Cinematography:** Mark Jenkin
- **Editor:** Mark Jenkin
- **Music:** Mark Jenkin
- **Costume design:** Mae Voogd
- **Producer:** Kate Byers, Linn Waite
- **Cast:** Edward Rowe as Martin Ward; Mary Woodvine as Sandra Leigh; Giles King as Steven Ward; Simon Shepherd as Tim Leigh; Chloe Endean as Wenna Kowalski; Janet Thirlaway as Mrs. Peters; Isaac Woodvine as Neil Ward; Martin Ellis as Billy Ward
- **Runtime:** 1h 29m
- **Certificate (MPA):** NR
- **Release (the US):** 31 March 2023
- **Genres:** Drama
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWPi3CZLnfU

## Where to watch in the US

- Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd
- Apple TV: buy $9.99, hd

*Checked 2026-09-17.*

Also available in: AU, CA, GB, IE, NZ, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *La Pointe Courte* (1955): Another fishing community filmed with formal daring and attention to working lives.
- *Local Hero* (1983), Fi1m 86: Coastal property interests meet local priorities, with more room for gentle absurdity. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/local-hero.md)
- *The Naked Island* (1960): Patient monochrome filmmaking makes the labour of coastal survival difficult to forget.
- *The Last Picture Show* (1971), Fi1m 89: A changing town, wounded pride and black-and-white images that refuse easy nostalgia. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-last-picture-show.md)
- *Ratcatcher* (1999), Fi1m 88: Working-class lives observed through images that can be tender and deeply unsettling. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/ratcatcher.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/bait