Ill Manors Film Review

Planning

Director

The director of the movie was Ben Drew also known by his stage name of Plan B. This was his first ever feature film, but he had directed a short film called "Michelle" before which also starred Ed Skrein. I personally thought he was able to create a very unique and exceptional film considering it was his first ever one. What I really liked about it was that he was able to use his music expertise and use it as a way to really bring the film to life as the music really fit the genre and narrative.

Main stars

Riz Ahmed, a well known rapper and also well known for the very popular movie Four Lions and Nightcrawler. His celebrity fame is something that would appeal to the audience and attract a wider audience.

Ed Skrein, known for Game of Thrones, the new Transporter, and up coming Deadpool. As he is in many big franchises that were only after Ill Manors, it would attract a huge audience to check out his smaller works.

Plot

The plot is about 8 main characters and focuses on each of their separate storyline. These storylines which at first appear to be completely separate but with small links, end up coming together right at the end to create one big picture and plot. The whole storyline revolves around the idea of sex, drugs, violence and the general theme of struggle in the less deprived areas and the stereotypical culture around them. I think it is a very unique plotline which keeps you hooked into the film, at first you see it as a several different strands of plot converging away but it is not until the end that you realise that they are all part of the bigger picture and that they are in fact converging into each other. This, I believe, is a greater metaphor for society in the socially deprived areas of London.

Characters

The main characters in the film were:

• Riz Ahmed as Aaron
• Ed Skrein as Ed
• Keith Coggins as Kirby
• Lee Allen as Chris
• Nick Sagar as Marcel
• Ryan De La Cruz as Jake
• Anouska Mond as Michelle
• Nathalie Press as Katya

The actors were very effective in their acting as through their facial expressions and emotions, they were able to very clearly portray the emotional turmoil of each character. This was very useful as it helped the audience to relate and connect with each character, whether they agreed with their actions/inner thoughts or not.

Genre

The genre of the film is an urban, crime drama. This is evident through the narrative's use of gang warfare, drug abuse/use/marketing, violence, prostitution/sexual themes and overall general theme of an urban environment. The mood of the story focused on creating tension and suspense, as we continually see many characters make immorally wrong decisions, but eventually feel sympathetic as we start to see things from their perspective which fits the idea of a drama however, breaks the conventional theme of crime.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack is written and performed by the director Plan B, and each character/storyline has a specifically written song to reflect the narrative. I personally thought that although it was very unique how the soundtrack was used to drive home the narrative, I feel like it was a bit too overt. Although, it was at the end of most narratives, as a way of a summed up conclusion for the audience, I feel like it would've been better if it was a little more covert in it's metaphors and meanings as this would leave the meaning of somethings up to to the audience rather then blatantly telling them what the director meant. For example, "I am the narrator, this is ill manors, let me take you back in flashbacks" etc.

Audience

The director aimed the movie at a late teen, young adult demographic as it got a BBFC rating of 18. I would definitely recommend it to many of my friends as the movie is generally aimed for an urban youth audience. It is a very unique movie in the sense that it intellectually and maturely challenges the stereotypes of our modern society. It provides the audience with an insight of the socially deprived and those characters of society that many people would consider a hindrance, as the movie shows that this is not at all the case. We see the perspective of these characters and see their point of view of life and how their daily struggle is something that is brutally honest and makes us feel sympathetic towards them despite their immoral decisions.

Review

Ill manors, a film deeply focused on the idea of urban crime, drama of the stereotypical East London society and regional culture. It is the debut feature film of the visionary artist Ben Drew, otherwise known as Plan B by his stage name. The film follows the storylines of six different varied characters in the unforgiving streets of East London, it is a film that aims to challenge the generic stereotype of "broken" Britain and tries rigorously to show the different perspectives of every day problems faced by the general populace of a typical urban area. This ranges from the idea of peer pressure, to gang warfare and drug dealing. Through the use of these very intricate themes and ideas, the over all narrative becomes masterfully hard hitting, and embodies the idea of dark, gritty drama. 

By creating these different perspectives, the film begins to give the populace of the less deprived a voice of opinion. This effectively helps the audience to relate to the characters much more and generally to people in actual real life that they might encounter and therefore challenging the viewpoints of many general British people. 

The cast is uniquely varied, but at the centre of the cast is Riz Ahmed, most commonly known for Four Lions accentuates the conflict of many people that are forced to partake in their dire situations. His character is one that Drew uses expertly to show the inner turmoil and conflict of personality and moral dilemma of choosing between right or wrong. This creates a lot of sympathy from the audience and his character is one of the only few driving forces for good that we see through the duration of the film.

There is a certain unique magical feeling from the combination of the powerful and energetic imagery from cinematographer Gary Shaw, mixed with the hauntingly potent lyrics of the soundtrack written by Ben Drew himself. Through this mix, Drew shows to the audience the despair of the characters who have no other choice than to sell drugs, resort to prostitution, or even get involved in gangs for their own personal sense of identity.

Overall, I would give the movie a 3 out of 5. It is a dark and gritty grime drama which focuses on a very integral part of society that is often overlooked in many different aspects of not only media but in people and culture. Right at the end, the focus of the movie begins to trail off as the message it attempts to drive home becomes tediously forced. Although, it comes up with an overall conclusion and attempts to show the audience that there is an overall bigger picture despite the separation of the storylines, we don't feel as much sympathy for the overall bigger picture. Yes, we do get to see the reasoning for many of their immoral decisions, but we don't see what can be done, apart from the obvious redemption of the arguably most chaotically evil character Ed, as he decides in a moment of decency to risk his own life for the life of a baby. 

I personally feel that this conclusion does not show the audience that there is something done, which in turn could be argued that is Drew trying to present the obvious hopelessness of how they can never change their ways. However, I believe that if Drew is so obviously trying to challenge stereotypes why does he choose to show the hopelessness and the apparent lack of a different choice for these characters.