Review: Shank
First-time director Mo Ali has created a beast.
Shank tries to be a dystopian film that presents a vision of London, circa 2015. Rag, tag and bobtail gangs run the city. So far has the world fallen, they peddle not stolen stereos and drugs but “munchies” – food, in other words (an apple costs £350; a pizza, intriguingly, £85.50). We’re not really told how this came about, and in so short a time too, but no matter: As The Road has shown, people enjoy not being presented with a cause when confronted with apocalyptic effect.
Shank also tries to cross gritty cinema with music video stylistics. Imagine Children of Men and then intersperse it with the credit sequence from The IT Crowd. That’s how Shank watches. For 90 minutes. One minute it’s in fit-like shakycam mode, bouncing through alleyways in chase of hoodlums, the next it’s become a mock-crap computer cartoon of a kid jumping over tower blocks. Quite what that’s supposed to do to you as viewer is anyone’s guess, but it doesn’t matter because…
Shank tries to be cool. Hugely cool. And, in an obvious way, it succeeds. The film’s narrative is cast from the computer game mould. In setting out to revenge the murder of his brother, the protagonist, a barely-teenager named Junior, has to negotiate a series of Level Bosses before fighting the Big Boss (a.k.a. the actual murderer). Onto this Kill Bill structure, director Ali plasters montage after montage of quick-cut footage set to the addled beat of pumping grime, hip-hop, and drum ‘n’ bass. Kaya Scodelario – you know the one – provides the skin-thin wallpaper.
But all that doesn’t stop Shank from being little more than a cross between shit and wank.
This is Generation Why? filmmaking at its worst. Thoughtlessly guided only by the principle of ‘whatever’s coolest goes’, Shank tricks itself into thinking it has genuine things to say on gang culture. It hasn’t. By setting his film in a recognizable near-future London, Mo Ali seems to insinuate onscreen events are possible, even knowable. But everyone in this world is in a gang, which means Shank renders null the ultimate issue of gang life in our world – how to get out. It’s a callous sleight-of-hand that scarcely covers the film’s overt glorification of gangland culture, and for all the film’s obvious enjoyment of itself, Shank is unavoidably cold as a result.
Well, the clue’s in the title, I suppose.
Tags: 2010, adam deacon, children of men, gungslinger productions, kaya scodelario, kill bill, mo ali, paul van carter, review, shank, the road, uk
JB,
You haven’t got a clue bruv! You probably like period drama’s you pussyhole.
Dear JB. Your not related to the director Mo Ali by any chance. A bad film is a bad film. Period. Get it bruv!
An absolutely terrible movie. Made by an attention deficit fanboy of soft porn music videos. Please do not let Mo Ali near a movie set again!!! Aaargh!!!