This movie blew me away

I wasn't expecting much since this is Plan B's first film and it looked like another Noel Clarke fiasco of a film. I actually only began watching it because I love Riz Ahmed and I'd just seen him in The Reluctant Fundamentalist (another great film!).

After watching Ill Manors, I was really surprised at the high quality of the directing, writing, acting, everything, especially considering that I later learned there was such a meagre budget of just 100,000. Unlike Noel Clarke films, the dialogue and acting didn't grate on my nerves or come across as unrealistic and over-done. I lived in the Tower Hamlets borough of East London when I first moved emigrated to the UK, and although as an outsider I was shielded from much of the problems caused by local poverty, I still encountered a lot of people that could be characters out of this film. Although I love this part of London, I had enough bad experiences to realise that there's a lot of f'cked up people out there with absolutely no care for other human beings.

Some viewers complain that films like this only focus on the negative aspects of living in the council estates and make it seem like everything is doom and gloom - but I think that most individuals would recognise that life in these parts is not always drama, violence and murder. This film is focusing on these aspects because Plan B specifically wants to show the worst of the worst that we may not imagine is actually going on. Do gangs in London use kids to murder people? Yes, it's happened. Do some gangs kidnap Eastern European women and force them to be prostitutes? Yes, it's happened. Do older men groom young British girls into being prostitutes using drugs ad alcohol? Unfortunately, we definitely know this has happened.

All in all, I gave this film an 8/10 because I felt like it was a bit slow to start, but after giving it a chance it totally blew me away with the engaging and emotional storyline.