Le Donk & Scorz-ayz-ee, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh

Welcome back to Shane's world

Following his beautiful miniature movie Somers Town, Shane Meadows returns with Le Donk & Scorz-Ayz-Ee, another short-and-sweet tale that once again proves that less can often be more. A mock documentary, improvised by Meadows and frequent collaborator, actor Paddy Considine, it marks Meadows's first appearance on camera. Playing himself, he's making a film about Le Donk (Considine) – or Nicholas as he doesn't like to be called – a rock roadie who's something of a legend in his own living room.

Having first appeared on the DVD extras of Meadows's Once Upon a Time in the Midlands, Le Donk's a long-haired, beanie-cap wearing screw-up, who's managed to split from his girlfriend Olivia (Olivia Colman) just as she's about to give birth. Although he makes a pathetic attempt to win her back from her much nicer new boyfriend, he's more concerned about making a star out of real-life Nottingham rapper Scorz-Ayz-Ee (aka Dean Palinczuk). Dressed in a cap that reads "Kids Need Hugs Not Drugs", this overweight rapper may not give Jay-Z a run for his money but Le Donk is convinced his boy has talent in spades.

Claiming to be a roadie for the Arctic Monkeys – or "Arctical Monkeys" as he calls them – Le Donk manages to arrange for Scorz-Ayz-Ee to open for the band. All shot during a concert held at the Old Trafford cricket ground in May 2008, the Arctic's bass player Nick O'Malley and drummer Matt Helders even briefly feature, offering their opinion on Scorz-Ayz-Ee. As the man himself takes to the stage (in front of 50,000 bemused onlookers), Le Donk joins in for a moment he's "waited my whole life for".

Reputedly shot over just five days, the film inevitably has a knockabout quality, but such is the talent of Considine, it doesn't feel hurriedly put together. His first collaboration with Meadows since 2004's Dead Man's Shoes, Le Donk proves that Considine has a natural gift for comedy that arguably hasn't been seen since the days of his first Meadows film A Room for Romeo Brass. Belting out a number that features such lyrics as "Calm down, Stephen Hawkins, Tinky Winky, Mork and Mindy" – before finishing with a reference to Harold Shipman – Considine can rest assured that he always has a back-up hip-hop career should the acting work ever dry up.

Like a cross between This Is Spinal Tap and Steve Coogan's sitcom Saxondale, if the film does have a habit of drifting towards rather obvious toilet humour at times, Considine does manage to mine some genuine emotion from his role. An egotist who tries to take over when Scorz-Ayz-Ee is suddenly recognised by those around him as quite decent, he later comes to the crushing realisation that he has no discernible talent. "I'm the guy who stands at the back of the fucking Pet Shop Boys pressing buttons," he says.

With its attempt to fuse Le Donk's world with actual music and film personalities, there is a danger with Le Donk that it could simply become an exercise of crude indulgence. Certainly, in keeping with the self-referential quality of Meadows's appearance, there is a cameo by Mark Herbert, the head of Sheffield-based Warp Films, the company behind the bulk of Meadows's work. But pulled off with such a carefree attitude, it would be churlish to criticise the film for this.

As for Meadows, Le Donk shows that he is one of our brightest, breeziest film-makers who feels no need to scoop together a massive budget to make a movie. Admittedly, after the masterpiece that was This Is England, following it with Somers Town and now this will leaves fans itching for something a little more substantial. Running at just 71 minutes, and with a DVD-only release planned, Le Donk has the feel of a film-maker recharging his batteries before tackling something serious. Perhaps this is what keeps Meadows's work so fresh.

'Le Donk & Scorz-Ayz-Ee' will be released on DVD on 5 October