County Lines

It seems to me the movie is underestimated I would say it is one the best British movies I know about. The plot is kinda simple but still really interesting I don't like is these long breaks when someone starts to think.

Remarkable acting, script and life story. Would have been a 10/10 if it had not been for the peculiar old-fashioned screen dimensions, which made it look more like a 80s TV movie than a modern widescreen film.

The way in which Tyler is recruited into the County Lines drug dealing network, becoming the 'Jim Line' is both convincing and disturbing. The film shows the social problems that lie behind the recruitment of youngsters into these criminal schemes, even the school life is shown -- and I have to say I would not want to be a teacher in that school. There's a lack of explanation of certain things. I'm not sure a US viewer would know that a PRU is a pupil referral unit.

I hope they are showing this to the teens in school, to educate them into understanding that this is a very dangerous path to follow and that the dealers treat them as an acceptable loss to their business, as many of the kids are fooled into believing they can be as rich and looking crisp with nice clothes jewellery and watches as the one who grooms them, when all these groomers are doing is putting all the dangers and risks on young recruited kids so they keep themselves under the radar with the law. I hope with the governments new laws and acts passed they tackle this practise full on and give very long sentences to groomers and drug dealers alike who use and abuse these kids. We can only hope as we need alot of funding for the authorities (police, social services, youth associations, councils, schools non lenient judges and especially the government) to eradicate this growing disease of our modern society. Great acting by Conrad Khan and brilliant writing direction by Henry Blake and his team.

Delicately poignant. Toe-curling in moments, hands over eyes in others, grounded but nothing short of absolutely gripping. You were right there with them, all the time, which is a testament to the script and the cast.

Khan was phenomenal and gave outstanding performances throughout. This is completely moving and an ode to British filmmaking. The atmosphere built through the expressionist and nuanced cinematography was seriously next level and it's how it's been filmed that makes the picture so evocative.

That cold, bleak hue and fuzzy grain of a winter in working England is something I know strikes many of us watching. The complex interpersonal nature of family and our parents during adolescence. The nativity of youth and the regret and sorrow we so often feel. Craving that deep hug from a maternal figure, crying into their arms.

County Lines is a truly beautiful and timeless piece by Blake; a necessary work of catharsis, melancholy, bravery and poignancy.

All my life I've heard people say "They were asking for it--" regarding nearly every imaginable kind of hardship folks see others facing (including rape). Easy to be smug at your own puny achievements when you observe the calamities of others, but tomorrow you might be hit by a bus as you digit the nth tweet of the morning. Today's "culture" is so sick it's a miracle the lights are still on. As with the storyline here in "County Lines", life itself has become one endless turf war, digging private trenches, mostly invisible: your kids my kids, your stuff my stuff. And then the banality of ordinary evil, the sudden event that re-ignites neglected bonds (married couples, parents with their kids, former friends). We make mistakes, briefly show remorse, but then invariably lapse back into our old ways of utter self-interest. True renewal is an extreme accomplishment. The heroes here in "County Lines" are perhaps not the mother (albeit commendable), but the other adults around Tyler of no blood relation who invest in him: his teachers and the social worker, those silent and mainly invisible individuals who hold the rich and complex tapestry of our society together. This restrained yet subtly ambitious film belongs with Ken Loach's "Sweet Sixteen", Andrea Arnold's "Fish Tank", and not least Clio Barnard's "Selfish Giant". Thanks to a wonderful cast, and thanks to you Mr Blake for bringing them together.