The bfi Times 48th London Film Festival started off with a bang on Wednesday with the Opening Night Gala Vera Drake. A good thing to know but unfortunately I wasn’t there.

However, I did get a nice surprise in my inbox that day stating that I had won a London Film Festival goody bag that included, amongst other things, tickets to last night’s world premier of British artist Tracey Emin’s debut feature film Top Spot. I had no idea what I was in for and perhaps I should have done some research before going to better prepare myself. Perhaps the fact it was showing at 11.30pm should have been the first clue.

A bit about the artist first. Tracey Emin appears to be what I would consider a typical artist. Her work is extremely reflective of her life and is always confrontational and provocative. For example, in 1999, her My Bed exhibit (an unmade bed surrounded by various clutter such as underwear, bottles of alcohol and contraceptives), shortlisted for the Turner Prize, was recognised by critics as being quintessential Emin.

Tracey introduced the film herself. The very first words out of her mouth were “Meow, meow, meow” (a salute to her cat Docket) and when she was introducing the actresses – each were told to say “Meow”. Okay … this was one lady devoted to her cat. So, back to the movie. The film is basically about a group of girls growing up in Margate – each of the girls having their own cross to bear: a pregnancy, a rape, unspecified acts of abuse, a broken heart and, finally, a suicide. As with all of her work the fact that it was autobiographical gave it an air of sorrowness. However, instead of engaging me, the movie turned me off as a viewer and it came off as a self-indulgent confusing depressing piece of film that I couldn’t wait to escape from. About 15 other people must have agreed with me because that is how many left, no I mean ran out of, the theatre.

The movie has already been given an 18 certificate (something Tracey was very angry about), meaning that Tracey’s target audience of teenage girls are already being excluded, so I don’t know who else this film was targeted at. I’m not really sure what message a teenage girl would get out of it. At any rate, Tracey herself has acknowledged that you would either hate it or love it … sorry to say but I’m leaning towards the hate it category.

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