Shank me in the face

Shank - Mo Ali

Is there now a common trend of releasing British film that depict “real” life where teenagers are “gangster” and threatening? Is that what has happened now, that filmmakers think its right to almost publicise the good aspects of this kind of behaviour? Because it’s starting to begin to look like it. I found it with the release of Kidulthood and Adulthood, both films that were new to the genre, showcasing “real” aspects of a typical teenager living in rough areas, where it used small instances and blew them up to become something that they are not. Not everyone growing up in London is stabbed or robbed or grows into a life of crime. It just isn’t true. And now with companies thinking that the market is open to using this idea and running with it to create the basic idea but in different genres, shows that British filmmaking maybe on a decline. Sure it’s very been fantastic, but it’s had a few gems like Dead Man’s Shoes, In The Loop, The Last King of Scotland and Slumdog Millionaire to name a few. We don’t have to keep using this whole idea of kids in major cities living the hard life, it’s utter bollocks, it’s just something the media came up to describe a handful of people and thus in the cycle of life, people begin to want to become the label they’ve been given. It’s fucking wrong and i can’t stand it, the whole culture of it. So seeing that a film which is basically the –ulthood series but in a futuristic world with small segments of animation, i was both intrigued and already guessing that it would be shit. My prejudgement wasn’t wrong.

Starring a handful of familiar faces and some newcomers, a kid loses his brother in a futuristic hood where people are living without the law, where food is scarce and the world has collapses somehow. This young kid in a gang with his older brother as the leader find themselves in trouble with a local gang and is killed, and this triggers a series of events that lead the younger brother to find revenge, talking to other gangs, finding new friends and recruiting people. Throw in some fucking random animation sequences that will make you laugh and you have an hour and a half episode of Skins but produced by the Channel U or AKA as it is now. I’m not trying to be predictable with the review or racist with the comments but I’m just shocked this was allowed to be made, glorifying gang culture. Surely this is against what the world wants right?

3/10

Simon Childs