Review of Bullet Boy

Introduction

Youth, violence and the gun culture are inextricably linked these days. Barely a day goes by without some violent crime appearing in the news, the most recent high profile one being the tragic murder of teenager Anthony Walker. Violent crime, particularly involving youth, seems to be ever-increasing. The reasons are not completely clear and a number of reasons have been cited by various people and institutions for this exponential rise in violent crime. In the US it mainly seems to be Marilyn Manson who gets the blame, here it mostly appears to be the gangsta rap scene and group like So Solid Crew who carry the can. It wasn`t helped when a member of the latter group was sent to prison for carrying a firearm, but the true reasons are as unclear today as they ever were.

Bullet Boy is a film that attempts to look at this culture in a realistic and non-moralising way, portraying life on the streets of inner city London through the eyes of a few of its inhabitants. In a case of art imitating life, the subject of the film is played by Ashley Walters. Ashley was formerly known as Asher D, was a member of So Solid Crew and spent 18 months behind bars for possession of a firearm. Ashley therefore brings some real life experience to his role that is rarely seen in film.

Ricky (Ashley Walters) has just been released from a 6 month stretch for stabbing a youth and is picked up by his woefully misnamed pal Wisdom (Leon Black). Wisdom thinks it a good idea to get his mate a gun, although Ricky is horrified when he sees it. Ricky seems to have seen the error of his ways and wants to live on the straight and narrow, even considering moving away from the area to escape the life that is awaiting his return.

A drive through the local streets starts an irreversible chain of tragic events, when Wisdom backs his car down the street and damages the wing mirror of local hardman Godfrey (Clark Lawson). Ricky wants everything to be cool and goes to apologise to Godfrey, but Wisdom is seething over the damage locally to his reputation. Ricky owes Wisdom a debt of honour after Wisdom saved his life during some unspecified past event, and is therefore obligated to accompany his friend when he goes to `scare` Godfrey. As Ricky fears, Wisdom gets out of control and shoots Godfrey`s dog and leaves Godfrey running for his life. Ricky takes the gun and hides it, but this event has started the spiral of violence.

Meanwhile Ricky`s younger brother Curtis (Luke Fraser) still looks up to his older brother. He is awake in bed the night Ricky brings back the gun. Despite warnings from his brother, Curtis fascinated with it and can`t help showing it to his friend Rio (Rio Tison). The duo run off to play with it and the inevitable happens. Everything now is leading to a choice that Curtis must make about the direction his life will take, and despite her having her son`s best interests at heart, there is nothing that his mum (Claire Perkins) can do to help make that choice.

There are over a million guns on our streets. This is the story of one.

Video

Picture is clear but colour is subdued, making it darker overall which fits the general mood intended here.

Audio

Mainly dialogue driven (plenty of talk of `brethren` and `blood`, every second sentence seems to end with `innit?`), not really much work for your speakers in terms of sound effects. The incidental music is by Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack and Neil Davidge, suitably broody and subdued work from the duo here. You also have a soundtrack incorporating a range of urban music featuring bands I`ve never heard of. Good subtitles included here too.

Features

Behind The Shots - an excellent Behind The Scenes featurette that explores both characterisation and storyline, with input from both the actors and the production staff.

Asher D TV - camcorder featurette that follows Ashley Walters around to various radio stations and PR events. The extra shows that it doesn`t seem quite enough these days to just pose for a picture with fans as Asher D breaks into a rhyme for some video phone carrying fans.

Auditions - some improvised scenes used as part of the audition process. Improv is an important part of this film, as explained in Behind The Shots, so this is quite interesting to watch.

Trailers - yep, guess what these are?

Conclusion

Absolutely incredible. I wasn`t expecting something that would tug at my heart strings so much, but this just about pulled them to breaking point. This story is so bleak and yet so full of hope. I was kind of expecting this film to either glamorise this culture or moralise over the causes, but it does neither. Instead we just have a simple story of events overtaking one of the characters, failing to make the right decisions that break the cycle of violence occurring around him.

Ashley Walters is quite stunning in this role, although I was never quite convinced how strong his conviction was to stay straight as the story moved along a bit to quick in that regard. He obviously has experience of firearms, certainly in terms of possession, but that doesn`t necessarily make him a good actor. That tends to come naturally and he really has something. I was really rooting for his character, even though I could clearly see the end coming from around 300 miles away.

The other actors and non-actors are good too. Many of the cast were plucked directly from the streets, but there are no duff performers here. Especially strong is young Luke Fraser as Curtis, a bright future awaits him if he grasps it. Claire Perkins puts in a gritty performance as the despairing mother who just wants to try and keep the innocence of Curtis and give him a chance of a different kind of life than his big brother. Curtis Walker is the Forrest Whittaker-esque rock that Perkins leans on as a local preacher who has walked in Ricky`s shoes before conversion to religion. I`ve only previously seen Walker in comedy series The Real McCoy so I`m quite pleased with the strong straight performance here.

Overall this is a moody and depressing look at life on the streets in our Capital, albeit with a faint glimmer of hope at the end. It is clear, although I couldn`t really say how accurate, that the message here is about how `face` driven the youth of today are. It`s all about face and how you are perceived by your peers. Small slights can set the most tragic circumstances in motion, illustrated here by the accidental breaking of a car wing mirror in a trivial car accident. From this one event, everything spirals out of control which just proves (on film at least) just how cheap life is today, whether animal or human.

Bullet Boy is a joint venture for BBC Films and the UK Film Council, who probably consider this money well spent. I couldn`t disagree with that and I would hope that with a 15 certificate that this film receives a much wider and valid audience by being incorporated into the school curriculum in some way. Maybe that is just wishful thinking on my part, but it could help to deglamorise the gun and violence.

Excellent film. Recommended without hesitation.