Ill Manors review

Plan

Director: The Sweeney, Turnout, Adulthood, Harry Brown, 4.3.2.1.

Main stars: Riz Ahmed, Ed Skrein, Natalie Press, Anoushka Mond, Keef Coggins, Eloise Smyth. Most of these cast members have starred in other films.

Plot: Ill Manors is a British crime drama that revolves around the lives of eight main characters. The film is set over a course of seven days where everyone is fighting for respect. The film focuses on characters circles of violence as they struggle to survive in the streets. There are six original songs by Plan B and each story is represented by a different rap song. The film goes from tragedies to characters lives improving towards the end.

Characters: The main characters-Aaron, Ed, Katya, Michelle, Kirby and Jody are played by:
Riz Ahmed, Ed Skrein, Natalie Press, Anoushka Mond, Keef Coggins and Eloise Smyth. In my opinion the quality of the acting was good as everyone stuck to their role and demonstrated the personalities well, to help tell the story.

Genre: Ill Manors is a British crime drama and definitely fit my expectations. This was due to the cover of the film, where the image portrays the genre of the film. The mood is very urban, with a Kidulthood/Adulthood type of feel.

Soundtrack: I enjoyed the soundtrack, it was very unique and every song linked to a different character's story. It made the story more believable and realistic as the audience could relate to it.

Audience: Ill Manors is aimed at a teenage/young adult audience, possible of a C2, D, E socio demographic. This is because it is set in a low class area and presents those characters, therefore audiences can relate to it.

Review

Ill Manors (2012) is directed by Ben Drew, who has produced similar films in the past such as Adulthood. He is also known to have produced other films including: The Sweeney, Turnout, Harry Brown and 4.3.2.1. Ben Drew was initially a rapper who wrote his own songs and led him to the opportunity to star in Adulthood. His rap music and one particular song ‘kids’ then began to drive his success which made him into the successful director he is today.

Ill Manors is a unique British crime drama that revolves around the lives of eight main characters. The film is set over a course of seven days where everyone is fighting for respect. The film focuses on characters circles of violence as they struggle to survive in the streets. There are six original songs by Plan B and each story is represented by a different rap song. The film goes from tragedies to characters’ lives improving towards the end. The characters consist of an ex drug dealer named Kirby, who has just been released from prison. A thug named Ed who searches for his missing phone. Michelle is a drug addict who is involved in prostitution. Jake is the youngest and finds himself drawn to the local gang. Chris seeks revenge due to the murder of his younger sister. Katya is trying to escape from the house she is locked up in with her new born baby. Finally, the main protagonist Aaron is trying to do the right thing and stick by his morals.

The main characters-Aaron, Ed, Katya, Michelle, Kirby and Jody are played by: Riz Ahmed, Ed Skrein, Natalie Press, Anoushka Mond, Keef Coggins and Eloise Smyth. In my opinion the quality of the acting was good as everyone stuck to their role and demonstrated the personalities well, to help tell the story. The actors were believable and all shared similar characteristics. The characters live in a rundown area where most people are drug addicts and suffer from abuse.

Ill Manors is a British crime drama and definitely fit my expectations. This was due to the cover of the film, where the image portrays the genre of the film. The mood is very urban, with a Kidulthood/Adulthood type of feel. I felt as though the film was quite explicit to drugs, sex and violence, however was realistic and gave a true picture of some people’s standard of living that is not always made aware of.

I enjoyed the soundtrack, it was very unique and every song linked to a different character's story. It made the story more believable and realistic as the audience could relate to it. When the songs were played they told a story of each individual character. A series of flashbacks were then shown of that character as a child growing up. The reason for this was to compare their life to a baby to how they are now and emphasise the change in development. The audience are also able to relate to the reasons of why they have turned out the way they are, some show neglect as a child. Particularly Chris, who is shown to be locked in a basement as a child and is given a scar on his face calved by a knife which he still has when he is older.

Ill Manors is aimed at a teenage/young adult audience, possible of a C2, D, E socio demographic. This is because it is set in a low class area and presents those characters, therefore audiences can relate to it. An A/B socio demographic audience would most likely not be interested in this particular film as it shows a lot of graphic drug use and violence. Using Blumler and Katz (1974) uses and gratifications theory, I believe Ill Manors audience would fit into an entertainment category and possibly relate to others. It would be used for entertainment as people may find the story line interesting and different to what they usually expect in a film. Also, people who suffer from similar situations as the characters whether that is drug use or physical abuse may be able to relate to the characters and even feel as though the characters can relate to them and their lives.

Overall, I felt as though Ill Manors was overly explicit, but portrayed a message that many young people can learn from and hopefully aspire to do the right thing as a lot of consequences were exposed in the film.