In terms of hip-hop aesthetic on film, this might be one of
the most direct examples I’ve covered on here. The feature-length directorial debut of
Andrew Onwubolu, also known as Rapman (which somehow bests Director X for most
generic music video director name I’ve ever heard), this South London crime
drama shows Rapman himself serving as Greek chorus, jumping in at certain key
moments to provide rapped narration. As part of the bigger presentation, with
the story of two teenaged friends pushed to opposite ends of a gang war by
cruel coincidence, it’s a decent enough idea in theory. But in practice, it
ends up dragging down what is otherwise a quite efficient slice of dramatic
grit.
Anchored by lead actors Stephen Odubola and Micheal Ward as
Timmy and Marco respectively, Rapman’s dialogue conveys plentiful local slang
and street knowledge to highlight what pushes these two men into their corners,
and the prevailing attitudes of those around them that eased them on their way.
It shows the ingrained gang-banging macho posturing that promotes aggressive
action over any moment of cool-down, tapping into plain-faced reality rather
than condescending to any of the personas on-screen about their actions.
However, that’s not to say that there isn’t any
condescension going on with the storytelling; just that it seems to be mainly
relegated towards the audience, and it’s here where the narration rears its
ugly head. It starts off on a decent foot with Rapman’s introduction setting
the scene, but the more he interjects, the more his entire reason to be part of
the storytelling comes into question. The narration largely consists of
recapping scenes in the film pretty much right after they’re shown, all
accompanied with the same plinky piano instrumental that makes the whole thing
feel like Children’s Story, as staged for actual children. Ill Manors,
this is not.
That Very Special Episode tone makes the story itself, which
is rather been-here-done-that as far as street yarns are concerned (albeit
highlighted within a new-ish locale, given Peckham’s place as the go-to ‘rough
side of town’ name-checker for British comedians), a bit difficult to fully
appreciate… but not by that much. When it pushes for poignancy in the
decay of Timmy and Marco’s friendship, and the thick haze of gun smoke and
petrol fumes that keep obscuring what’s right in front of them, it certainly
hits home and the ending is suitably tragic and affecting because of it.
Ultimately, this isn’t a bad film as much as it suffers from
a bit of adaptation sickness, since it’s based on Rapman’s YouTube mini-series
of the same name where he basically narrated the bulk of the story in this
style. But when put next to more linguistically-involved presentation, and
actors who can more than deliver the pathos on their own, it doesn’t work
nearly as well. This should’ve either been a straight-forward feature without
the narration, or maybe a concept album where the songs do all the storytelling,
both perfectly viable options. As it is, though, it’s stuck unfortunately in
the middle, turning what should have been an easy recommendation from yours
truly into “yeah, it was alright”.
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