What better way to start the Midnight Madness program than a riotous shoot-em-up starring a bunch of actors that are eminently cheer worthy? That’s Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire, which finds the British director back in down and dirty mode after last year’s High Rise, his detour into genre art fare that was met with mixed reviews. Free Fire is a complete about face: Wheatley exchanges the cool aesthetic and stylistic direction of High Rise for a relatively simple narrative that allows him to focus on creating a crime caper engineered to ensure maximum audience satisfaction.

The plot is straight forward: in 1978 a group of freedom fighters, led by Cillian Murphy’s Nick and Michael Smiley’s Frank, meet up to buy guns from Sharlto Copley’s Verne, with the sale facilitated by neutrals Justine (Brie Larson) and Ord (Armie Hammer). After the briefest of introductions to flesh out which side everyone is on, the deal swiftly goes south over a minor disagreement. The remainder of the film’s 90 minute run time is dedicated to extended gun battles, punctuated by brief moments of tension-defusing sarcastic commentary from the surviving participants. The entire film is situated in an abandoned factory and populated almost exclusively by our core cast (outside of a few individuals who might as well all wear red shirts). It’s a bare bones bottle action film.

At first it seems as though the thin premise will be the film’s downfall; after all, how can Wheatley possibly keep the energy from flagging without more to work with? The simple answer: create a series of highly entertaining action set pieces and let his talented cast do the rest. The staging of the action is impressive considering the limited space, but Wheatley makes good use of hallways, stairs and pillars to help divide up the space as characters run for cover. Two set pieces in particular stand out: an extended two person crawl to reach a phone on the second level that involves both a fire and a fire extinguisher and a last act chase scene with a truck going slowly in circles.

[Related] All Toronto International Film Festival coverage on Bloody Disgusting

The actors, meanwhile, all hold their own (Hammer starts off poorly, but ends up redeeming himself as the film progresses). It’s unclear how much of the dialogue is scripted, but the volley of insults and comebacks hurled back and forth is almost as lethal as the bullets. It’s worth singling out Copley, whose narcissism, flashy 70s suit and unique South African accent helps to distinguish Verne as a truly unique and offensively funny character. As the lone female of the group, Oscar winner Brie Larson manages to hold her own, despite disappearing for a long stretch in the third act of the film while the boys kill each other off.

The single biggest challenge the film faces is that there is no strict protagonist or antagonist so it’s not entirely clear who we should be rooting for. There’s barely enough time for introductions before the shooting begins and since Wheatley refuses to pick sides, our instinct is to cheer for (and against) everyone. As a result Free Fire winds up resembling a slasher film where we celebrate the great kills (of which there are several) rather than cheer for our favourite character to survive.

Ultimately, Free Fire is a solidly entertaining crime film. The action is frequent and adrenaline-boosting, the dialogue crackles and several of the set pieces are highly memorable. For audiences willing to park their brains at the door and embrace the madness, Free Fire should hit the sweet spot.