One review on 15 May 2021
UK 2019
Running time: 90 mins
County Lines
no director listed
Aspect Ratio: 1.55
Colour: Colour
Sound: Stereo
Tech Notes: Stereo
Synopsis
Tyler (Conrad Khan) aged 14 lives with his mum, Toni (Ashley Madekwe) and younger sister Aliyah (Tabitha Milne-Price) in tower block. Toni works nights, Tyler is a loner and bullied at school. When Toni looses her job Tyler gets groomed and recruited into a drug distribution network.
Reviews
by Roger CO on Sat 15th May 2021 DVD proj @ home
Convincing view of a real issue
Summary
A chunk of English social realismFull review
Excellent performances by Conrad Khan as the 14 year old Tyler, and Ashley Madekwe as Toni, his mum.
Henry Blake has evidently tapped into his own experiences working in the front line of youth support to make this film, and both the story and the performaces throughout are entirely convincing.
We see how the children of the precariat become extremely vulnerable and susceptible to being sucked into dangerous choices. Thus the problems are handed down from generation to generation as the rich get richer.
The film is in similar territory to both the Education segment of Small Axe (2020) and Rocks (2019), all dealing with the impact of bad policy on young people in difficult circumstances. Of the three Education has the most upbeat ending, whereas this leaves one very aware of the issue and some of the factors driving it but with no resolution in sight.