Review by Lizzie Husher
Stars Kedar Williams-Stirling, Ashley Bashey Thomas, Michael Socha, Kaya Scodelario, Colin Salmon, Robbie Gee, Jan Uddin, Jennie Jacques, Jerome Holder
Written by Paul Van Carter
Certification UK 15
Runtime 90 minutes
Directed by Mo Ali
There are a few good ideas amid some stylish directing in this vision of a dystopian London of the future, but unfortunately they’re obscured by the muddled tone, overuse of ‘urban’ slang and the laughably two dimensional characters.
It’s 2015, the economy has taken a dramatic nosedive and fourteen year-old Junior (Williams-Stirling) resides in the Paper Chaserz crew, a non-violent South London gang lead by his elder brother Rager (Thomas). Chaos and crime is everywhere, whilst food stuffs have replaced drugs as the dealing commodity of choice (and necessity). Following a confrontation with a rival gang, Rager is killed and Junior must decide whether to stick to his brother’s peaceful ethos or avenge his murder.
Visually it is reasonably impressive; director Mo Ali paints quite a grim picture of a ruined city and there is the occasional shot or allusion that’s pretty haunting (the marketplace and the food are two examples). But sadly, after a promising beginning, it gets ever more farcical throughout and toward the end comes to resemble what you might expect from a Grange Hill episode if the BBC had ever branched out to include late night editions.
This is definite style over substance; we never really get to know the characters beyond their simplistic presentation, and the muffled dialogue is sometimes as incomprehensible as the underlying message. Probably one to avoid unless you’re between 15 and 17 and don’t find the street lingo immensely annoying.