This is certainly both a bleak and powerful film, full of real emotion and depth: the sense of hopelessness and struggle kept me watching for the entire 84 minutes!
A moving coming-of-age British film with lots of swearing and brutal scenes about a teenage boy who is groomed into a 'county lines' criminal network.
Before watching this I did not know much about this topic so I had a quick look at the nationalcrimeagency website: "County Lines is where illegal drugs are transported from one area to another, often across police and local authority boundaries (although not exclusively), usually by children or vulnerable people who are coerced into it by gangs. The 'County Line' is the mobile phone line used to take the orders of drugs. Importing areas (areas where the drugs are taken to) are reporting increased levels of violence and weapons-related crimes as a result of this trend."
The film follows Tyler (Conrad Khan, born in 2000) - a withdrawn teenager whose mother struggles to keep her family afloat. In the first minute of the film you hear the words "acceptable loss" and Khan's role here asks a lot of him as a young actor: his opening scene relies purely on his facial expressions and, as his situation deteriorates further, we are even more aware that underneath he's still a boy, full of confusion and turmoil. There is a flashback to Tyler's life six months earlier and you see a rather troubled boy.
After buying a pair of shoes and sitting having food, Tyler listens as Simon (Harris Dickinson) describes himself as an entrepreneur and a man of his house: Tyler immediately replies that he, to, is "the man of my house". From here you feel the excellent script building the story with every scene and watch as Tyler changes from that boy into an angry and violent man-of-his-house.
"County Lines" works best on a big TV screen as there are many dark and deliberately dimly lit scenes. The camerawork is clever in many scenes and the use of filters on some of the shots really adds to the atmosphere of the characters. You see this in the scene where Tyler is standing in the school yard, surrounded by puffy jackets and people, but totally alone in his depressing view of his life.
I was shocked at how real this film feels, and I watched as Tyler becomes a train-bound drugs courier, taking him into a world of violence, exploitation and deceit. This really is gritty storytelling - from Tyler's concealed method of carrying the drugs to the brutal beating he receives one hour into the film when he tries to muscle in on the patch of another dealer.
We only ever hear and see exactly what we need to and the director's restrained approach to his narrative heightens the film's devastating impact.
The film ends with a rather disturbing message:
Up to 10,000 children as young as 11 are involved in County Lines across the UK.
A moving coming-of-age British film with lots of swearing and brutal scenes about a teenage boy who is groomed into a 'county lines' criminal network.
Before watching this I did not know much about this topic so I had a quick look at the nationalcrimeagency website: "County Lines is where illegal drugs are transported from one area to another, often across police and local authority boundaries (although not exclusively), usually by children or vulnerable people who are coerced into it by gangs. The 'County Line' is the mobile phone line used to take the orders of drugs. Importing areas (areas where the drugs are taken to) are reporting increased levels of violence and weapons-related crimes as a result of this trend."
The film follows Tyler (Conrad Khan, born in 2000) - a withdrawn teenager whose mother struggles to keep her family afloat. In the first minute of the film you hear the words "acceptable loss" and Khan's role here asks a lot of him as a young actor: his opening scene relies purely on his facial expressions and, as his situation deteriorates further, we are even more aware that underneath he's still a boy, full of confusion and turmoil. There is a flashback to Tyler's life six months earlier and you see a rather troubled boy.
After buying a pair of shoes and sitting having food, Tyler listens as Simon (Harris Dickinson) describes himself as an entrepreneur and a man of his house: Tyler immediately replies that he, to, is "the man of my house". From here you feel the excellent script building the story with every scene and watch as Tyler changes from that boy into an angry and violent man-of-his-house.
"County Lines" works best on a big TV screen as there are many dark and deliberately dimly lit scenes. The camerawork is clever in many scenes and the use of filters on some of the shots really adds to the atmosphere of the characters. You see this in the scene where Tyler is standing in the school yard, surrounded by puffy jackets and people, but totally alone in his depressing view of his life.
I was shocked at how real this film feels, and I watched as Tyler becomes a train-bound drugs courier, taking him into a world of violence, exploitation and deceit. This really is gritty storytelling - from Tyler's concealed method of carrying the drugs to the brutal beating he receives one hour into the film when he tries to muscle in on the patch of another dealer.
We only ever hear and see exactly what we need to and the director's restrained approach to his narrative heightens the film's devastating impact.
The film ends with a rather disturbing message:
Up to 10,000 children as young as 11 are involved in County Lines across the UK.