Rent Blue Story (2019)

Despite lurid & sensationalised tabloid headlines, this is sadly not a good film - Blue Story review by TB

The debut of the filmmaker Rapman, this film was born out of his massively successful YouTube videos, which then gave him the money to turn this into a feature film. The story follows two best friends who live in neighbouring parts of London, who slowly get immersed in the warring gangs and eventually become enemies through their association with these gangs. The whole film is told through the medium of rap, which does give a different & unique element to this movie.

The lurid headlines I referenced, which totally overshadowed the film & it's release, concerned an initial attack on the police with machetes in Birmingham, but then multiple other incidents were reported at showings around the country, leading big cinema chains to pull the film. The fallout from this, as well as questions of racism being brought up, to me have no impact on how I saw the film or viewed it. I watched it purely on its merits.

It does start well, plus the music score is very good. Certainly the rap element worked well in establishing character & motivations, as well as the camaraderie between the different characters on screen. However, it then just started to become boring & I was less and less engaged. After about an hour I switched it off, having given it a really good shot, but finding myself disengaged.

A good attempt to depict street life, but one which didn't do much for me.

Awful Violent British Drama about the world of Inner City Gangstas. Hated it. - Blue Story review by PV

I could only stand 26 minutes of this then ejected.

I utterly despise the inner city criminal gangsta rap culture. I despise it. This is not British culture in our capital city - it is a vile alien imported street culture with silly little boys (and some girls) role-playing US gangsta rappers even talking about 'the Feds' for the police. It is kids play-acting. BUT with real knives and guns and mugging. I HATE it - everything about it. The socaled music, the violence, the attitude.

Now some claim this all exists because of 'racism' that great red herring. What rot! This is a cultural thing - taking a lead from US/Jamaican gang/street crime 'culture'. Not many Asians or Chinese or aspirational African black people (the majority of the UK's 3% black population of 14% total BAME).

Hard to follow at times, but worthwhile - Blue Story review by Darius

Fast-paced and a bit confusing at times, particularly for those of us outwith the age range of the main characters of the film, but successfully gets across the utter futility and pointlessness of the South London postcode gang culture.