ill Manors Review

SPOILERS AHEAD

Review Plan

Director: Ben Drew- AKA Plan B who is a musician  

Main Stars: Riz Ahmed 
Ed Skrein
These actors may not be familiar with many people as this film was low budget. So therefore the cast may not include some celebrities in the movies that the mainstream audience could recognise.

Plot: The film is about two characters Aaron and Ed and how their lives affect their environment. For instance, the damage that was dealt which may have benefited the characters, may have cost them to cause damage to the characters who were affected which in the long run ends up casing the characters to meet up.

Characters: The main characters are Aaron and Ed. Their quality of acting had made it seem like they were in an urban based London. In addition to this their emotions had also presented London in a dark way as it presents the streets of London as a dangerous area to live and stroll around.

Genres: The genres present in the film is Crime and Drama. It fits the crime quite well as the audience views the illegal crimes that are being committed such as violence, possession of drugs/ weapons, and the control and influence that a gangster would have. The drama elements were the situations that had thrown our character off. This could be evidenced with the missing phone/weapon, murder of a sibling, Earning money to get a phone, and the child who was left on the train by an irresponsible mother which our protagonist has to return.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack that was used in the film had suited the theme of an urban London. It had the elements of gangs in the tune which had also suited the film. My thoughts on the music are that although I despise this urban style of music, it gave atmosphere to the film to give it that urban feel. So therefore it has been excused due to it's setting that is currently being seen. 

Audience: The audience is most likely aimed at young adults of the age of 18-35. This is due to the theme of the film. I would agree with the age certification that was given since it includes some sexual scenes and some violent scenes such as the POV of the irresponsible mother who was brutally punched. It is also aimed at mainly adults due to women being objectified which could be seen as sensitive to a female audience. However this couldn't really be the reason that could throw away the female audience.

Three word Description: Gritty Urban London.

The Review

My thoughts on ill Manors are mainly positive mainly due to the way that the characters link together. The coincidences link together perfectly to create this multi-protagonist story which later links towards our main protagonist being Aaron who is presented in the film's poster.  The narrative can really show the impacts of crime in a negative way which can really make it seem appealing to an audience. The realistic troubles that the characters face are also one of the strongest points that make this film an interesting story that relates to crime. How the film was created felt like a music video which was a little nifty but a minor change that I don't mind. The different story-lines are also enjoyable to watch and they don't feel like filler just for more screen time. As well as that there are also some segments of action that are presented. However since this is a drama-like film, the action might be slightly exaggerated to extend the suspense. This is heavily supported when Chris pulls the trigger. This should be expected since this is a drama and not an action film which would make gun shots not as tension filled. The protagonist who has the most screen time is Aaron and we see how he would conquer the struggles that he face. The most recurring struggle would be against the law which is presented when he tries to return the child to it's rightful mother. They also make this not look like filler as the new characters that we face with constantly returns with either older characters that we are familiar with in the past with the narrative or that are with a new threat to our main cast. The representation of London as an urban area filled with crime is done exceptionally well as the audience can see the influence and control that older people can have on a younger who just wanted to obtain drugs. This film does send a message of reality to a younger audience about the costs of becoming a gangster and how this could all be lost. So this had represented the teenagers as a threat to the young characters. This can also be evidenced with the end scene which had presented the young teenager who was attacked by the influenced teenager as a young criminal with violent intentions. The character development is shown quite well and this is also enforced by the young teenager who was influenced. We had seen the development of the teenager from a desperate drug consumer to an all out criminal committing crimes. However he does have aspects of his weaker self in the film at his final moments when he cries for mercy at the end before he is shot down after killing Chris' sister. Chris is quite the anti-hero in this film as we see that he can be a cheerful drug addict and serving Kirby as we see his back story and that was another aspect of the film which I enjoyed. It had presented the life of the fallen character to the audience to give a brief history of how they have changed due to this setting that have been in. These little segments were okay at times but had still made London look like a dangerous place due to the aftermath of the crimes and how unprivileged people have to cope with living in London. Moving onto the soundtrack and I liked how the tracks had suited the film. This isn't surprising knowing that the director is also a musician which would make the choice of music understandable. However I wouldn't like the music outside of the context of the film as music that relates to gangsters isn't my sort of music. Putting into consideration that I only liked the music as this had improved the atmosphere of the film and enforced this gangster style of living. The actors that were acting in the film also portrayed characters that had suited the element of crime since their accents and presentation of chavs had made the environment of the film more like an urban setting. Some complaints that come in mind are two aspects the police and the visuals in a specific scene. Firstly the visuals. We see this scene which was supposed to make a character look cool as he breaches through the fire to save a baby but instead the fire looked extremely fake and bad. However to defend this film, it had a budget of approximately £100,000 and since this is an arthouse film, this film would be more narrative driven rather than introducing amazing visuals. The next complaint is the police. This should be a force that could track down our characters. Instead we are treated with a weak police force that didn't do much but appear at the end where we see some of the antagonists such as Chris (arguably anti-hero) and Vladmir who may have been the one who had brutally injured the irresponsible mother. However this can be excused as this isn't a crime drama about the police and since we are in an urban London, we wouldn't expect the police to be strong. However we see a SWAT team who breaches into a building armed with full auto guns and arrests them at the end. Overall this film was enjoyable and quite interesting which I would recommend but not to all my friends since this may not be their sort of film with the representation of a realistic urban London being the premise that many young viewers would appreciate. 

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