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1 Day (2009)

Director: Penny Woolcock

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Synopsis

A tough, uncompromising drama from the mean streets of Birmingham.

Movie review

From Time Out London

Birmingham. Two rival black gangs in their respective colours rap furiously as they converge. An updated remake of ‘West Side Story’? No, it’s the latest from risk-taking British director Penny Woolcock (‘Mischief Night’, the ‘Tina’ TV films), an attempt to combine gritty urban drama with rap tunes where the non-professional cast tell the stories of their community. With all the will in the world, it just doesn’t come off, and the problem isn’t with the music, which is lively horse’s-mouth stuff, but with the weak thriller narrative. The set-up (drug dealer ends up on the run from everybody when he can’t repay his bad-ass mate just out of prison) is not unpromising, but it all goes slack when Flash (Dylan Duffus, slightly overawed) takes us on a tour of the locality – which is fine as social realist scene-setting but is as counter-productive in the circumstances as the rap interludes which immediately dispel any authenticity, or indeed credibility. Some of the performers, notably Yohance Watson’s charismatic crimelord Angel, emerge with credit, otherwise this is a well-intentioned misfire.

Author: Trevor Johnston 2009-11-03 10:56:39

Time Out London Issue 2046: 5-11 November, 2009