Ill Manors : Film Review

Write a review of the film 'Ill Manors', of at least 750 words, using the guide to help.

Director 
The movie ill manors is a small budget British movie, and has been directed by well-known singer/rapper, song writer and actor Ben Drew, who is famous as 'Plan B' - He who belongs from forest gate in East London. 

Main Stars

The movie consists of 8 main characters: Aaron, Chris, Ed, Katya, Kirby, Michelle, Marcel, Jake. We see their lives and how troubled they are in their own different ways. The movies uses much flashback’s to show how much a child's upbringing can affect their future and their decisions. .

Plot

Ill manors are mainly shot in the areas of East London, near to the Olympic stadium. The location has been vital because although South East London has been ‘changed’ due to the Olympic being a legacy to the original deprived areas of Newham and Forest Gate. Ill manors starts off with Ed getting caught selling drugs with the main character (his sidekick) Aaron. This leads to many events occurring. Aaron works for Ed who is a ‘gangster’, who really is just a drug dealer, he has recently been bailed from prison and discovers Aaron has lost his phone; Ed needs his phone as his regular drug using customers would ring that phone. Ed takes Aaron around to find the phone were a drug abusing lady is sold to local shop keepers and chicken shop employees, in order to raise enough money to satisfy Ed. Ed also ends up losing his gun, which belongs to an original gangster Chris, in order to find the gun – which was on the top floor of a burning pub, Ed had to go and face his fears and rescue the gun, as well as a baby. He had thrown the gun and the baby to Aaron and jumped out of the window, this caused his death. This was followed by Jake asking for drugs from a local ‘badman’ - Marcell, this resulted in him being asked to beat up a local good boy, so he can be entered with the cool kids. However Jakes young mind resulted in him being forced by Marcell into killing Kirby, who was a drug dealer, who Marcell and Chris hated. Jake went to kill Kirby and ended up killing Chris’s sister the original badman who Marcell was ‘shook’ of. Chris then killed both Marcell and Jake for accidentally killing his sister.   

Characters

There are many characters involved in the movie overall, this included Aaron (main character)’s social worker, the pub owner etc. However all characters are shown to be tangled in their own problems, leading to many people dying within the film such as Ed. Most of the characters have been raised with a bad upbringing, where either they have lived on their own, or in care after being abandoned by their parents. ‘we are all products of our environment’, this quote from the beginning of the movie  justifies why Jake - who is a young boy, turns to being a ‘bad man’. Jake was an innocent pre-teen, who looked up to Marcell. Marcel turned Jake bad, he was a bad influence and he was a coward. Chris was the most intimidating character in the movie.

Genre

The movie is an urban drama. My first expression based on the poster of ill manors, was that it would be similar to kidult hood and the sequel film adulthood. The mood of the movie was mainly depressive, but eye-opening because we get an insight of what life is really like in the suburban regions of London. However, towards the end I felt that certain events happening can be a step up for certain people, for example the character of Rizwan Ahmed – Aaron, he was a sidekick for Ed, who got him in more trouble, so after his death he went his own way in order to fix up, leaving the audience satisfied In some ways, as we are shown that people are changing, and some won’t always stay ‘’in the hood’’.

Sound

Music was used in order to narrate the 8 stories taking place throughout the film. Plan B, the director was the creator of the music. In my opinion using rap as a narrative strategy was a good idea as it allowed to target the audience further, because in general the audience is a younger generation and they will be able to relate to rap music. The music being used as a narration also allowed giving details on the character, so the audience can know them better and therefore sympathize with them. In addition the music allowed the story to unfold better as it made it easier for the audience to understand the story.   

Audience  

The audience of the film ‘Ill manors’ was mainly the youth, aging from 13-25. To be specific the target audience are mainly males. This is because the film includes a lot of swearing, a lot of aggressive behavior and sexual themes as well as dis-respectful attitudes towards women. Of course, this won’t be favored by any gender, however, males may be more ‘light-hearted’ about the themes of the story, whereas for females it would be more emotional as they will be able to empathize more to their own gender. This may make them feel depressed, leading to them not liking the movie – therefore they aren't the main target audience. However, some females will find the story interesting.