STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
One of director Nick Love's earlier films, focusing on the lives of a group of South London youngsters during the summer of 2001, mainly the titular Charlie Bright (Paul Nichols) and his unbalanced friend Justin (Roland Manookian) but also their friend Tony (Jamie Foreman), another lad Francis (Danny Dyer), who's drifted apart from them a bit and another mate who's gone off to join the army. As events roll on, Justin's behaviour becomes ever more unbalanced and his friendship with Charlie is tested to the limit.
Brit director Nick Love is fast gaining momentum as one of our more renowned directors, with his new film Outlaw expecting a massive release later this week, but here's a film he made on a lower budget and with less publicity a few years ago. As I said in my plot summary, it can be best described as a South London Stand by Me, with it's themes of how friendships pan out during a long hot summer, only with much less likable characters, extremely unruly, unlawful and disrespectful, making them extremely hard to endear to. Another problem the film faces is the amount of sub-plots it creates without creating a satisfactory resolution to. They break into a man's house to steal some things, he comes after them only to be after the one of them who didn't do anything, one of the main character's has a bust up with another character, storms off and is never seen again, one of the main character's is even apparently killed, but we never actually learn for sure.
So it's incoherent, then, and with characters you won't exactly cheer for, but it's quite well acted, as another reviewer has already pointed out, it shows a nicer, more realistic picture of a South London summer with glowing flowers and a shining sun and a great soundtrack, including Kids by Robbie and Kylie, Live Forever by Oasis (though some Londoners might object to a Mancunian classic on a film about them!) and the pulsating The Bomb by Love Connection. **
One of director Nick Love's earlier films, focusing on the lives of a group of South London youngsters during the summer of 2001, mainly the titular Charlie Bright (Paul Nichols) and his unbalanced friend Justin (Roland Manookian) but also their friend Tony (Jamie Foreman), another lad Francis (Danny Dyer), who's drifted apart from them a bit and another mate who's gone off to join the army. As events roll on, Justin's behaviour becomes ever more unbalanced and his friendship with Charlie is tested to the limit.
Brit director Nick Love is fast gaining momentum as one of our more renowned directors, with his new film Outlaw expecting a massive release later this week, but here's a film he made on a lower budget and with less publicity a few years ago. As I said in my plot summary, it can be best described as a South London Stand by Me, with it's themes of how friendships pan out during a long hot summer, only with much less likable characters, extremely unruly, unlawful and disrespectful, making them extremely hard to endear to. Another problem the film faces is the amount of sub-plots it creates without creating a satisfactory resolution to. They break into a man's house to steal some things, he comes after them only to be after the one of them who didn't do anything, one of the main character's has a bust up with another character, storms off and is never seen again, one of the main character's is even apparently killed, but we never actually learn for sure.
So it's incoherent, then, and with characters you won't exactly cheer for, but it's quite well acted, as another reviewer has already pointed out, it shows a nicer, more realistic picture of a South London summer with glowing flowers and a shining sun and a great soundtrack, including Kids by Robbie and Kylie, Live Forever by Oasis (though some Londoners might object to a Mancunian classic on a film about them!) and the pulsating The Bomb by Love Connection. **