Montana (McKell David), a 14-year-old boy from East London, lives amongst a
ruthless group of powerful drug dealers led by a Russian ex-soldier. He doesn’t go to school but wears a uniform
anyway so that he can inconspicuously deliver cocaine and wedges of money around. The dealers are hiding a secret from him
about his father so when a rival gangster jumps him and steals a large amount
of money, they use this excuse to try and kill him.
Just as he is about to be killed,
Montana is saved by Dmitri – a Serbian assassin (Lars Mikkelsen) who is watching over him in order to get revenge on
the Russian mob boss who was involved in the killing of his family. Montana, now disillusioned by the betrayal of
everyone around him, is convinced by Dmitri to help him his revenge so undergoes
rigorous weapon and unarmed combat training to toughen him up.
Meanwhile, the gangsters are looking for
him so use their connections with Phelps (Brad
Moore), a corrupt police officer, to capture Jess (Sinead Michael), Montana’s only friends his own age, to lure him
and Dmitri to an explosive confrontation…
Writer/director Mo Ali presents the Boyz In
The Hood meets The Karate Kid narrative
as a slick urban thriller, with stylish rhythmic editing and wide frames of tower
blocks and endless terrace housing. The
fight scenes are beautifully choreographed and are as exciting as anything I’ve
seen this year. But underneath the
action there are some darker messages about modern London.
At the crucial scene where Montana loses
the money, he is framed next to a piece of graffiti that reads, “poverty is the
mother of all crime” – yet all throughout the film the imposing financial
skyscrapers of Canary Wharf dominate the skyline. The brutal criminality of the gangsters is juxtaposed
with the socially acceptable advocates of inequality: the City of London
bankers. The other public institution
that is accountable for protecting the people on the estate, the Metropolitan
police, is also shown as corrupt and destructive. The racism of the police is also referenced,
for example when Phelps threatens a young black teenager with the line, “[I’ll]
bleed you ‘til you turn the right colour.”
A story like this could easily fall flat
if the central performance was weak, but McKell David is totally believable as
Montana. He manages to get the range just
right from a tearful, vulnerable teenager to a fearless and menacing assassin –
one tracking shot in particular where he looks at the camera as Dmitri is
teaching him not to flinch at bullets flying past his head gave me a shiver…
The film will get a cinema release in
December 2014 and is an absolute must for fans of big, loud, Friday-night
cinema. It puts recent Hollywood action
films to shame and establishes Mo Ali as an amazing new London talent. Make sure to catch it on the big screen.
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