A strong cast including an intense turn from Fraser Kelly as the 11-year-old title character can’t stop the gritty ambition of the story sliding into schmaltz
‘You seem like a nice bloke, so I’m gonna give you some advice. Don’t trust me mum – she’ll destroy your life.” That’s the heads-up from young Leeds tearaway Urban (Fraser Kelly) to Chop (Richard Armitage), who has shacked up with the former’s hard-partying mother Greta (Anna Friel). Adapted from Bernard Hare’s 2005 memoir Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew, getting life guidance from 11-year-olds is par for the course in a topsy-turvy demi-monde of absentee parents, latchkey kids and rife substance abuse. Originally shot in 2015 and seemingly re-edited in between, the film succumbs to a fatal lack of perspective itself – never fully sure of whose story this is and what purchase to offer on the stunted lives on show.
‘You seem like a nice bloke, so I’m gonna give you some advice. Don’t trust me mum – she’ll destroy your life.” That’s the heads-up from young Leeds tearaway Urban (Fraser Kelly) to Chop (Richard Armitage), who has shacked up with the former’s hard-partying mother Greta (Anna Friel). Adapted from Bernard Hare’s 2005 memoir Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew, getting life guidance from 11-year-olds is par for the course in a topsy-turvy demi-monde of absentee parents, latchkey kids and rife substance abuse. Originally shot in 2015 and seemingly re-edited in between, the film succumbs to a fatal lack of perspective itself – never fully sure of whose story this is and what purchase to offer on the stunted lives on show.
- 10/31/2023
- by Phil Hoad
- The Guardian - Film News
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