"The Taste"

24 September 2025

3 mins 12s

An acquired taste.

The phrase 'acquired taste' is so often used to describe something that tastes terrible that it's easy to forget its actual meaning. This fantastic concoction for Laphroaig, brought to the screen the mercurial talent of Tim Pope, leans hard into the phrase's original intent and, by doing so, offers a reminder to whisky aficionados of this brand's unique offer. Willem Dafoe appears to have been intoxicated, not by the advertised drink, but by Tim Pope's anarchic energy, and he has thrown himself into this project with an admirable lack of constraint.

The outcome is marvellous, but in a style that continually flirts with danger as it could so easily go off the rails (and some viewers may even feel that it has). But if you want to stand out in a crowded marketplace, and to say something meaningful and memorable about a brand, you have to be willing to take risks, and this film is brimming with them.

The creative director Valerie Wickes masterminded all of this, and the client deserves enormous credit for getting behind this idea as well. When you are attempting something safe, the consequences of falling short are minimal, but when you are trying to jump across a ravine on a motorbike, the consequences of falling short do not bear thinking about. This project clearly belongs to the latter category, and everyone involved should feel euphoric that it has landed so beautifully.

UK

Whisky