STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
The directorial debut of hot new hip hop/acting star Ben Drew centres on a series of interwoven stories, of various different characters caught up in a grimy underworld centred around a South London housing estate, where guns, drugs and prostitution are the order of the day. The trouble is, none of these stories are linked together, and without a solid story line, the narrative flow is inevitably a bit messy.
I'd listened to the Ill Manors album before I saw the film, and was aware the tracks were basically the soundtrack to it, with each song provided to the different segments introducing each story. They on their own were undeniably raw and hard hitting, and demonstrated why Drew (in his Plan B mode) emerged as such a major hip hop talent. Somehow, rather than enhance it, they seem to have sucked in all the unflinching power of Drew's creative banks, and left a film that fails to generate any dramatic impact or tension, and feels like a damp squib compared to what was promised. I'd hazard a guess most of the cast were probably first time actors, or maybe even just real life council estate kids Drew knew who he just hired for authenticity, and it shows in their performances, a few of which are just really unconvincing and flat. Somehow, the whole thing ends up dragging on for nearly two hours, by which time self indulgence has just gone right out the window.
Drew has proved himself a really amateurish director, with an equally amateurish cast and crew, and produced a film that doesn't manage to cast a dramatic light on a really seedy and depressing section of society, however convinced it seems that it has. **
The directorial debut of hot new hip hop/acting star Ben Drew centres on a series of interwoven stories, of various different characters caught up in a grimy underworld centred around a South London housing estate, where guns, drugs and prostitution are the order of the day. The trouble is, none of these stories are linked together, and without a solid story line, the narrative flow is inevitably a bit messy.
I'd listened to the Ill Manors album before I saw the film, and was aware the tracks were basically the soundtrack to it, with each song provided to the different segments introducing each story. They on their own were undeniably raw and hard hitting, and demonstrated why Drew (in his Plan B mode) emerged as such a major hip hop talent. Somehow, rather than enhance it, they seem to have sucked in all the unflinching power of Drew's creative banks, and left a film that fails to generate any dramatic impact or tension, and feels like a damp squib compared to what was promised. I'd hazard a guess most of the cast were probably first time actors, or maybe even just real life council estate kids Drew knew who he just hired for authenticity, and it shows in their performances, a few of which are just really unconvincing and flat. Somehow, the whole thing ends up dragging on for nearly two hours, by which time self indulgence has just gone right out the window.
Drew has proved himself a really amateurish director, with an equally amateurish cast and crew, and produced a film that doesn't manage to cast a dramatic light on a really seedy and depressing section of society, however convinced it seems that it has. **