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“I don't know how much movies should entertain. To me I'm always interested in movies that scar. The thing I love about Jaws is the fact that I've never gone swimming in the ocean again.” --- David Fincher ::::::::::::: MY CRITERIA FOR DISCUSSION ENCOMPASSES THE HORROR GENRE AND BEYOND, SO I USE THE TERM "NIGHTMARE MOVIES". SPOILERS CAN OCCUR WITH OR WITHOUT WARNING. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

London to Brighton

January 4th 2009 23:23
London to Brighton movie poster
Paul Andrew Williams’ debut feature is a very dark, yet powerful movie. It punches below the belt and hits hard and leaves you reeling, but at the same time you can’t help but marvel at how well made it is; how uncompromisingly it deals with incredibly heavy issues.

London to Brighton (2006) tells the sordid tale of a pimp, a prostitute, and a runaway girl, and all the dreadful shite they find themselves up to their necks in. It’s filmed with the kind of dark and gritty realism that made Gary Oldman’s Nil By Mouth (1997) and Eric Roth’s The War Zone (1999) so affecting.

Kelly (Lorraine Stanley), is a London streetwalker, who is coerced into finding a young girl for the vile pleasures of her pimp Derek (Johnny Harris)’s most notorious client, the millionaire Duncan Allen (Alexander Morton). Kelly desperately needs the money and Derek is loathe to disappoint Allen, so Kelly scours the Embankment looking for a feral nubile.
London to Brighton Georgia Groome
Georgia Groome as Joanne
Kelly finds Joanne (Georgia Groome) begging for money and befriends her. Joanne has runaway from her abusive home. She smokes and swears and is 11-years-old. Kelly introduces her to Derek who, after plying her with ice-cream and assuming Joanne is sexually active, persuades her to go with Kelly to visit Duncan Allen. Joanne will get one-hundred quid.
London to Brighton Lorraine Stanley
Lorraine Stanley as Kelly
Duncan Allen is a monster and Kelly and Joanne escape. But now they’re on the run from Derek who has been instructed under pain of death by Allen’s gangster son Stuart (Sam Spruell) to find and deliver both Joanne and Kelly. It seems Stuart’s father may have been compromised.
London to Brighton Johnny Harris
Johnny Harris as Derek
Told in non-linear fashion London to Brighton is a fast-paced dramatic thriller with brilliant performances that grips from start to finish. It’s only 80-minutes long and it cracks the brutal whip. Not since Nil by Mouth has a movie sported such coarse – but realistic – language. Cleverly, writer/director Paul Andrew Williams (who made last year's The Cottage) starts the movie after the horrendous event in Duncan Allen’s home, and then returns to the moments leading up to it with a series of flashbacks.
London to Brighton Sam Spruell
Sam Spruell as Stuart Allen
Georgia Groome is a revelation; her performance as young Joanne is amazing. The actor was thirteen and apparently rather well-adjusted, but still a very brave undertaking (Lord knows how open-minded her parents were in letting their daughter be involved in such a traumatizing movie!) The co-lead performances from Johnny Harris and Lorraine Stanley are just as good (both of whom reprise their characters’ roles from a short Williams made several years earlier). Also of note is Sam Spruell’s disquieting presence as the bad apple son who hasn’t fallen far from his father’s poisoned tree.
Lonodon to Brighton Alexander Morton
Alexander Morton as Duncan Allen
The directorial style of London to Brighton reminded me of Mike Leigh and Ken Loach; all hand-held cinema verite camerawork and raw in your face portrayals of the underbelly of society. The movie cost only £80,000 to shoot, yet director Williams was determined for the movie not to be prejudiced against for its low-budget so rather than use digital video he shot it on 16mm (blown up to 35mm) to instill a genuine cinematic feel.
London to Brighton Johnny Harris
Derek lies wounded after Stuart's ultimatum
It’s a harrowing movie to watch, and there are several scenes that will test fragile sensibilities, but it’s intelligently-handled and as a thriller it is excellent. I had one major qualm about why Joanne would stay with Kelly following the dire situation that Kelly was instrumental in putting Joanne in, but perhaps Joanne was savvy-enough to see that Kelly herself was a desperate pawn.
London to Brighton Georgia Groome and Lorraine Stanley
A grey day on a Brighton beach
London to Brighton is a disturbing, emotionally-wrenching urban nightmare dealing with distressing social disease, but it's astonishing filmmaking and one of the most genuinely affecting British movies in years.

Here's the trailer:


London to Brighton DVD is courtesy of Siren Visual, many thanks!

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews
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8 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Chris Champion

January 5th 2009 03:22


LettersToNorm
Vyoos
Zoomies
Bloggercises
The Blog of Lists
Real-world stuff, Bryn. Sounds much scarier than ghouls and zombies.

Comment by Damo

January 5th 2009 03:27
This does not look like my style of film at all.
However I will probably watch it when SBS put it on in the future. By that time I should desensitized enough to cope.

BTW
Did you manage to catch the doco last night about Dr Freeman: The Father of the Ice Pick Lobotomy. Now that was a horror story.

Comment by skoop

January 5th 2009 08:46
SOUNDS GOOD...The reason we need horror films is because they can give more comment about SOCIAL INEQUITUDE...than a sermon from the PULPIT...IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAM...you need to shock people into reality...unfortunately...mov ies like this tell us that the human condition has prevailed in this state of pathos for as long as EVIL HAS BEEN ECKSTANT....

Comment by Tracy

January 5th 2009 22:00


Movies and Life
This has been on my to-see list since Cib mentioned it. I must see it and soon...

Great review, Bryn.

Comment by Bryn

January 5th 2009 23:49


Horrorphile
Curious mix of comments, I like.

Chris, the real world will always be scarier than the supernatural one

Damo, I missed that, was it on SBS?

skoop, you said it.

Tracy, you'll appreciate this fer sure. Cheers!

Comment by Tracy

January 6th 2009 03:01


Movies and Life
I'll be back soon

Comment by Bryn

January 6th 2009 06:25


Horrorphile
Tracy, I'd like to know what you think of this one.

Comment by Tracy

January 6th 2009 06:32


Movies and Life
I give myself a week to do it.

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