Ill Manors
Tags: realism

Plot synopsis:
Set in Forest Gate, London, the film begins with partners Ed (Ed Skrein) and Aaron (Riz Ahmed) drug-dealing. Undercover police chase the two to a closed gate – Aaron manages to climb over and Ed hands his phone over to let Aaron take care of it. Before Ed can climb over, he is caught and sent to jail. Aaron takes the phone to Kirby (Keith Coggins), a well-known drug dealer across the area who has recently come out of prison, who keeps Ed's phone at his house. The song "Drug Dealer" leads the flashback story of Kirby and a man named Chris (Lee Allen), who was Kirby's protégé in the drug business, however, he is now independent. As Kirby collects the drugs from Chris to sell, he encounters Marcel (Nick Sagar), who is caught selling on Kirby's "turf". He decides to make Marcel strip and he runs off, naked. Aaron, waiting for Ed, is given a letter by his old social worker, and is dismissive in opening it. Meanwhile, Ed is released from prison and meets up with Aaron, telling Ed that his phone has been taken but knows who has it.
At the local park, various gangs of youths gather. A young teenage boy Jake (Ryan De La Cruz) meets his friend and borrows some money to purchase weed off Marcel, a youth drug-dealer who is the leader of a gang. Jake then proceeds to go up to the gang to purchase some weed. Marcel firsts steals the money, before asking Jake to beat up his friend for the weed, primarily due to his appearance and unfamiliar status. Jake reluctantly beats him up whilst the gang go over and record the scene. Marcel watches from afar and invites the vulnerable Jake to join his gang. Their activities when Jake joins the gang are recorded on a mobile phone such as partying and driving around. The gang then enter an abandoned building where a man is tied up for not paying Marcel his drug money. The man is threatened and is released when his cousin delivers the money. The song "Playing with Fire" represents the story.
Kirby encounters Jody (Eloise Smyth) and Chanel (Sasha Gamble) at a café and tells Chanel that he can introduce her to his friend Nigel, who is part of a modelling agency. The gullible Chanel does not realise it is a lie, and so takes his number. Jody does not believe Kirby but decides to support Chanel anyway and decides to go with Chanel to meet Nigel.
Ed and Aaron find Michelle (Anouska Mond), a drug addict and prostitute who was sexually-abused as a child. She is accused of taking Ed's phone (as she steals mobile phones to support her habit) and attempts to find it. Michelle offers to go to fast-food shops where the employees pay £20 or less to have sex with her, whilst Ed keeps the money – represented by the song "Deepest Shame".
As Jake has now passed the initiation in proving his loyalty, Marcel manipulates him into killing Kirby to get revenge for Kirby forcing him to strip earlier. In the house, Jody and Chanel have arrived – Kirby promises that Nigel shall be arriving shortly.
Terry (Neil Large), a local resident who knows Kirby visits whilst the girls are there. Terry finds Ed's phone under Kirby's sofa and goes to return it, thinking Ed has his phone. Aaron feels sympathetic towards Michelle, as it is revealed that she never had the phone at all. However, when Terry turns up expecting his phone, Ed blames Michelle of taking Terry's phone and proceeds to beat her. Aaron is warned by Ed but he manages to take the money made from Michelle's prostitution and pays Terry to leave her alone. Aaron and Ed leave and watch from a distance as despite Aaron's kindness, Michelle continues with prostitution.
Meanwhile, Marcel and Jake are in the car outside Kirby's terrace house. He is told to take the gun from the glovebox (after much refusal) and go inside and kill Kirby. He then enters the room (wearing a balaclava) and shoots Kirby in the head, whilst accidentally murdering Chanel in the process, leaving a shocked Jody crying over the body. However, Chanel happens to be Chris's half-sister. Terry then returns finds the two dead bodies (Jody had left) and decides to take the bag of drugs that Kirby got off Chris, left beside the sofa.
Aaron is at the Earl of Essex pub and is interrogated by the landlord about selling drugs in the pub; as this happens, Chris enters the public toilets. The song "Pity the Plight" explains how Jody leads Chris to Terry's garage to gain information on the killer of his sister. One of the workers at Terry's garage says that Marcel could be responsible, as Kirby made Marcel strip earlier. Chris enters Marcel's residence with a gun and interrogates him, before Marcel tells Chris it was Jake who killed Chanel, inevitably setting Jake up to save himself. Chris and Marcel pick up Jake who sneaks out and a stand-off occurs with the three by a canal where Chris tells Jake to stab Marcel, revealing that Marcel set him up. Jake loses his temper and stabs Marcel, subsequently killing him, while Chris shoots Jake. The scene where Chris enters the pub bathroom is repeated, showing Chris hiding the gun in a bathroom cubicle water-tank after he flees from the murder scene. The following morning, Chris goes to retrieve the gun but it has already been taken.
Before the next story is introduced, it shows Aaron who had found the gun from the pub. In the next story, the protagonist is a woman called Katya (Natalie Press), a European immigrant who was raped by Vladimir (Mem Ferda), the owner of a whore house. She gave birth to a baby girl and finds it difficult to survive. The song "The Runaway" shows how Katya escapes the Russian whore house when the owner mixes vodka with heart pills and passes out. She then escapes with her baby into London. There she performs prostitution and steals food to survive. Looking for somewhere to crash for the night, she meets Michelle. Michelle realises the slim chances the baby will have and takes Katya under her wing. Meanwhile, the Russian gangsters are looking for Katya and she goes to the train station and while Aaron is alone on the train, the doors open and Katya leaves her baby in the buggy on the train, as she can see that the gangsters are about to catch her. Aaron bangs on the window in an attempt to gain Katya's attention. After his failed attempts to return the pram to the mother, he sees police at the upcoming station. Aaron hides his gun and drugs inside the pram and the baby's nappy respectively, and walks past the police without any problems, he then takes it upon himself to look after the baby, even though he is mocked by Ed. He then looks after the baby at his flat, talking with Jody about what to do. As the Russian gangsters have found Katya, a time where Michelle is distracted, she sees the car leave off, but she jumps in a cab just in time and orders the driver to follow them back to the whore house. As Vladimir is beating Katya, Michelle sneaks up behind him with a brick and hits him on the head with it. The two women run back into the cab, and although Vladimir attempts to chase them, they get away.
Ed convinces Aaron to sell the baby to the owners of the Earl of Essex pub for £8000, as the wife of the owner cannot have any of her own. Later, Katya and Michelle find Aaron who explains that he's given the baby away. Meanwhile, Ed is held at knifepoint by Chris who wants the gun back that Aaron has taken. Ed promises that he'll get it back within two hours. At the pub, the owners are reluctant to give away the baby and demand a full refund (not just Aaron's half of the money). After Michelle lashes out at the pub owners, she reveals that she had sex with Vince. After Vince's wife realises that her husband slept with Michelle, she proceeds to slaps her and the two begin to engage in a fight. Upstairs, Terry falls unconscious after leaving an electric heater near his bed, accidentally setting fire to the pub. The baby is still upstairs crying. Katya goes after her child but passes out due to the smoke. Aaron goes upstairs and saves Katya, but leaves the gun upstairs. Ed goes up for the gun, and before he leaves, decides to go back for the baby too. As the pub falls apart around him, he decides drops the baby out of the window for Aaron to catch below in front of a shocked audience. Aaron successfully catches the baby, and Ed tries to escape the smoke-filled room as the fire brigade arrive. He climbs out of the window but slips and kills himself. Aaron then says to Katya and Michelle that he knows someone who can help them, and arrives at the home of his social worker. She allows Katya and Michelle to stay there, whilst Katya names her baby "Hope".
Aaron returns the gun to Chris, who asks Aaron to work for him. After Aaron refuses, he goes home and opens the letter from social services given to him at the start of the movie. It's a letter from his mother, and he learns that he was abandoned for his own safety as a child. He then speaks with Jody about Ed's funeral, deciding to use Ed's £4000 from the baby money to go towards it. The members of Marcel's gang are shown next to some graffiti reading "R.I.P. Marcel and little Jake". The boy Jake initially beat up is shown taking back his £20 off another boy, showing the effects of the previous actions from Jake and his gang. Chris gets pulled over by police, who find crack in the boot of his car, whilst other police arrest Vladmir and the others from the whorehouse, intertwined with images of the Olympic Park. Jody beats up April, who tried to run off with the funeral money. The final scene shows Aaron being driven in a taxi. He glances in the rear-view mirror and Plan B himself is the driver.

Review: Plan B is clearly not content with just being a famous rapper/singer/actor, as he has now tried his hand at directing, with his debut film ill Manors being released in cinemas today.
Set in East London, the film follows a series of characters from drug dealers to prostitutes to runaway single mothers as they all struggle to survive in their poverty stricken area.
As you can guess, this is not a happy-go- lucky sort of film, but nevertheless it's a very good film.The style taken is very much similar to Pulp Fiction (believe it or not), as each character gets their own little tale, and soon enough they begin to over-lap with one another, creating a sense of community, we see that everybody really does know each other, whether for good or bad.
It's a very brutal film that doesn't hold back either, from violent murders to a woman being pimped out for £10 at a kebab shop, we see it all within 121 mins.Whilst it is an ''urban'' drama at the end of the day, the film does what Kidulthood/Adulthood/Shank could not do and has a go at actually trying to explore the reasons behind why people join gangs or decide to riddle their body with heroin.
Considering that a year ago I had never listened to a Ben Drew (Plan B) track, dismissing him out of hand as yet another rap/hiphop wannabe, and today regarding him as a genuine multi-talented prodigy is an honest tribute to his unbelievably versatile creativity.Due in part to the perfect format of a rap narration, in part to the fact that this is a man with his finger FIRMLY on the pulse of a disaffected sector of society and in part to the unforgiving art and poetry of the writing, direction and art direction, I feel that this is a modern masterpiece.
Consider again that this is a directorial debut and was achieved on a budget of merely £100,000, it's almost genius.John Cooper Clarke, rather surprisingly for me, adds the perfect complementary poetic touch; I had forgotten quite how uncompromising and bleak his words can be.Reminiscent of Clockwork Orange in its brutal beauty,the story is realistic to the immorality and just plain incomprehension of the consequences within an "underclass" subculture, yet the characters are so finely drawn and portrayed that you feel not only sympathy, but you feel a part of their hopelessness and helplessness.There was one scene I couldn't watch (no spoilers); watching with my 19 y o daughter, she remarked that it was the first time in a long time that a film had affected her emotionally.
It bends moral boundaries to a level rarely seen before in British cinema, even when the character does things for the 'greater good', the brutality of the streets re balances the already lop sided scales back into darkness, corruption and greed.A fantastic blend of black and white re winds, flash backs and present time, in a style similar to that of Pulp Fiction where each characters story gets told and varied perspective on events is shown, on this poor and heartless council estate in London.
The extent to which this film impressed and shocked me, in the standard in which is was created, the plot, characters, and actors involved, means Ill Manors easily waltzes into my top 3 of the year so far..
And some of the acting is actually quite good.But much like Kidulthood and other mediocre attempts at portraying Council Estate life on film, it only shows one shade of the story.The grim is coupled with the opposite in real life.
If I can luck out on a rush ticket Saturday, it will be the first time I've ever seen a movie TWICE at the festival, (I have a feeling that this film will take time to reach the American market – perhaps being toned down in the process -- and I've GOT to see it again.) This is certainly a helluva directing debut for musician Ben Drew (a.k.a. Plan B) who also wrote the pulsating soundtrack.
Especially impressive Is Riz Ahmed as the character who bridges several interconnected stories about life on the mean streets of East London over a several day period.
I ain't gonna beat around the bush here, Ill Manors is one of the best films I have seem in a long long time, If like me, you enjoy British drama's like kidulthood, adulthood & wild bill, then this is a definite!!
The acting is superb and very believable.The Story itself shows a very harrowing tale of different peoples lives living in London, There are drugs, Gangsters, Violence, the lot.
Im originally from London and spent many a year on estates getting into all sorts.As someone else rightly said on here, there's good and bad and there's a lighter side to the dark side, in fact its mainly middle ground with episodes of badness and episodes of coming together, but films have to take a story and this story was to depict the dark-side..like it or not.It does this in such an astoundingly clever way that it cannot fail in delivering a very disturbing story - one that will shock all that watch it.
Without question, this film will take you in from the first minute and drag you into the hurricane that is the working class of London where you have no idea how or where you will end up.From a spectacle point of view, this film is breathtaking one minute and the so raw the next that you will feel the need to look away.I can quite readily say that I did not expect nothing close to what I saw and I am extremely glad that I took the time to check this brilliant film out.9/10 for me..
I've never seen (or noticed) Ed Skrein in a film before, and he played his part perfectly - Totally believable, and basically a right nasty piece of work.All the other parts were played excellently too(with maybe the exception of Kirby's character)It had a great story that keeps you engrossed from beginning to end, it is shocking, harrowing,and some good humor was thrown in too.After it finished, I text a handful of friends (who I knew would like it) and told them to watch it asap.Nuff said, 10/10.
It has been a while since I have been spirited to write a positive review on a film, I'm always drawn though to gritty British street drama by the likes of Shane Meadows(This is England, Dead Man's Shoes) and Guy Richie, and now I have Ben Drew to look out for.
The film borrows the integrating of separate lives genre such as used in Magnolia and Lock Stock with a Rap music throughout, now had I have know that it used rap music in that way I probably would have avoided it like the plague as rap music is just tedious to me under normal circumstances, but the lyrics which add narrative to the story and backgrounds of the characters is superbly done and despite my prejudice on rap music I have to hold my hands up and say "I have been educated" other music is well chosen and builds nicely to the feel at the time of use in the playout.
Plan B writes cleverly from the different perspective of how the people live in the London street life and the storyline is brilliant in how the character meet together.
I don't like to write many reviews, but when I discover a movie that I think it is underrated, it makes sense to write about it:)Although there are many characters, you do not get to know very well any of them and at the same they all have something in common: a horror east-London story-line that tangles them.I guess the movie seems very rough and tough from many points of view, specially to someone who has not been in that part of London, nor has seen anything similar.
To all the other ones, this seems to be just another slice of live that brings up sometimes the worst and best of people.There is a positive message in the end, but boy..you have to through hell and back before you get there!I am having hard time recommending the movie, although from technical point of view it was almost without flaw, mainly because the abuse of using too many sad stories at the same time.
Blah Blah Blah..the following 3 words might as well be the only thing some reviewers of this movie should have written as their reviews are about as useful to movie lovers as a bullet proof vest is to superman.The movie is a solid drama/thriller,which is very very realistic,the seedy underworld of London is portrayed on the mark.the main focus however is a strange one,rather than an actual plot as such "ill manors" is a story about different kins of people all connected to the underworld(not a bad thing at all) in a different way and each persons story is connected via crossed paths,its very clever very well acted,the soundtrack is amazing,the attention to detail that drew has is immense.I would also like to comment that other reviewers trying to sound cultured and intelligent on IMDb have said drew is trying to gain street cred in with this movie obviously have no idea who Ben drew is and the fact that he has been the UK's most intelligent,profound and lyrically punishing rapper for the last ten years and he has enough cred to last 2 lifetimes,do your homework!!!..
In fact - the only thing that I care about in films is whether or not I enjoy it, and with the curiously named Ill Manors, I find myself giving a definite thumbs up.The main character of the film - Aaron (played by Riz Ahmed of "Four Lions" fame) seems to represent someone trying to do the right thing in a world where being weak is not tolerated at any level.
In my opinion, he has done a pretty good job especially with the blending of music in to film to tell characters back stories.
It makes me wonder if Ill Manors could have been a much more powerful film, if the director had actually restrained some of that rather showy visual style and non-linear editing and had just concentrated more of the story.
It is a brave film and certainly must be commended for trying: there are some very intense and good moments, which I am really praising, however, even though I might talk to people about Ill Manors, I don't think I'll ever recommend anyone to watch it (aside for our prime ministers and politicians).
STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday MorningThe directorial debut of hot new hip hop/acting star Ben Drew centres on a series of interwoven stories, of various different characters caught up in a grimy underworld centred around a South London housing estate, where guns, drugs and prostitution are the order of the day.
There is a story laid out with an inter wining theme - but no real protagonist of antagonist is ever properly established as the plot switches too often to establish the key characters and their overall goal.This is one of the best debut films i have ever seen, but its writing is severely flawed in my opinion.
If you are expecting something along the lines of Kidulthood/Adulthood this film is not it.I think Ben Drew set out to create something similar, and while you can't argue with the authenticity of the locations & events, the story isn't really there to cement it.
Learn the language of the narrator, because he's explaining what's happening as we shift back and forth in time.Writer and Director Ben Drew / Plan B presents a shockingly realistic portrayal and insight into the hapless lives of the damaged individuals that we get to know in the course of the story.If society, as a whole, has not got the message that comes out loud and clear from the film, it's 'Keep drugs, fireworks, sharp instruments and unloving care-takers away from young children - if you want a happy ending in the longer term'.This film charts the everyday outcomes which follow early exposure to forbidden fruit and the inability of people to recover from exposure, later on in life - whether due to premature death or permanent, irreversible psycholgical damage.
This was a very deep film, a great story, very real, very true to life, very dark, very intense.
In hopeless cycles of fear, flight, and attack; the characters connect and collectively manifest the poisonous web that is their ghetto-hood.With it's killer soundtrack, razor-blade-sharp eye for plot-detail, visual gags, and a speed-dial connection to " Hood-life circa 2012"; watching Ill Manors is sometimes surprising, sometimes painful; but never dull.On this roller coaster ride of losses and gains, everyone rides and no one is clean; but the ticket to redemption can sometimes be bought for a price, paid in deeds or paid in blood.What this movie lacks in perspective depth, it more than makes up for with a style and pace, that leave many movie releases of 2012 standing.Contemporary Street vibes and idioms are vividly captured, and projected with an authentic immediate bleakness.While possibly falling 'only-just' short of being a "classic"; Ben Drew's directorial film debut is an amazingly confident foray into the 'social-realism movie' arena.His talents as an established singer songwriter serve him well, and add a refreshing twist to this well-trodden genre.Originally written & published ...
David Cameron was born in London yet I doubt very much he has witnessed a social London manor such as Ben Drew's depiction of this brilliant portrayal of the inner London of today.Teenage girls & boys, young men & women, a new-age society that only knows gang-culture, turf war, drug dependency, gun violence, prostitution, fear and a one-way ticket to the abyss.The movie world makes me smile regarding what is considered a good, or a bad film.
Inspired by Brit urban dramas such as Kidulthood, singer-songwriter Ben Drew developed this film after the 2011 summer riots in Britain as a response to David Cameron's Broken Britain.Ill Manors is a chaotic film set in an area of inner London as we criss cross the lives of various drug dealers, street kids, crack addicted prostitutes, sex gangs with their imported sex slaves.With a soundtrack consisting of urban rap and grime which gives the background of the characters and their little tales as well as ageing punk poet John Cooper Clarke popping up as a chorus.There is the story of the street kid teen Jake who uses his friend's £20 to buy drugs and is ripped off and then has to beat up the friend he took the money from to get respect.
The debut feature from Ben Drew (better known as rapper Plan B) makes some interesting inroads as a gritty gangster film bent on uncovering the many flaws of David Cameron's broken Britain.
But, at an ill-advised two-hour plus runtime and an ill-managed script that very quickly degenerates into a nonsensical shamble of f-bombs, c-bombs, 'innits' and 'bruvvas', Ill Manors looks more like an unassuming eight-year-old with a painted gold chain and counterfeit snapback: he thinks he's tough, but he's the only one.The effort made to blend the six stories surrounding the film's doomed night crawlers – four drug dealers and a pair of prostitutes – is a respectable one.
The film is a rap musical about the lives of drug dealers and prostitutes on a London housing estate (i.e. social housing).
The film ends with the searing track Falling Down that knots the intestines but my favourite to listen to as a stand along song is Drug Dealer (the story of Chris's life).
when i first seen the trailer for ill manors i cant say i was too exited, i thought it was gonna be another kidulthood type of film, and i was very surprised at what i got, the movie is the British equivalent of 'mean streets'.
the movie is directed by rapper plan b, and he clearly knows his subject matter well, as there is an undeniable realism to the movie, and he incorporates his music into the film well, yet never feels like a vanity project, it is a very well made and gritty crime drama, and i recommend.
These people stay in character all through the film, whereas in real life, is just a facade for the street.The imagery is stark, especially in the baby rescue scene, and it really does deliver it's message, very bluntly.On a 100k budget, Drew has made a very professional looking movie, and I look forward to seeing what he has to give us next..
I was wrong, halfway through the film there is no plot what so ever, the characters are difficult to get to know because so much is going on, and to me it gives a real negative vibe about the streets of London.
Growing up outside of London I don't know what it's really like, but I'm sure this film is over the top with the theme of gun crime, prostitution and drug dealing.
The situations that occurred I could share many similar stories of friends and people I know.Most of all the film was enjoyable to watch the storyline had its funny, shocking and violent moments.
I do feel it built up to a climax in the middle of the film with Chris killing the young guy who killed his sister and then with the women who left her baby on the train we started a whole new story.All in all a very good debut for Plan B aka Ben Drew!Another element of the film.
Set in London and showing its underworld side evolving around drug dealers and gangsters, visually looks impressive and you would not have thought it was from a first time film maker.
Honestly you would think, based on this film and how many of the characters know each other, that London had a population of about a thousand people.