South West 9

This is possibly one of the worst films I have ever seen. The plot and characterisation is clumsily handled. There isn't one character you feel sympathy for and all in all I felt that the film lacked charm or warmth. All of the characters felt like sketches and not real people you could identify with or feel empathy. The multi plot storyline popularised by Guy Ritchie is used to no real positive effect. The message of crack addiction ruins lives whilst unsettling was sanctimonious. Saying crack addiction is a not good for you is like saying the Sun is hot. The depiction of Brixton was passé and out of date. The film makers made Brixton look like something out of the early 90's. I sat through 2 hours of monotonous rubbish and I wish I had listened to my partners requests of wanting to hire You Me and Dupree instead. I am struggling to find any redeeming qualities about this film. I can safely say that I would live a happy and content life if I never laid eyes on this film again. Rubbish with a capital R.

This is a good movie. In spite of what some IMDB users have said, I find the characters all totally believable. And I am both involved in putting on underground parties in London, and spend most of my clubbing time in and around Brixton.

Hats off to the casting and to one or two of the actors. It is Mark Letheren ("Mitch") who steals the show for me. Spending most of the film 'totally off his tits' on LSD after an accidental dosage, his acting is worthy of awards.

Without giving too much of the story away, it is about six different characters: an Essex scammer who is trying to organise a clubnight in a church in Brixton (called "Faith", clearly a reference to Mass, which is a real-life club in a church in Brixton); his mate Mitch, rather more naive than the former character but totally likeable, in fact probably the nicest character in the whole film; a black businesswoman who works in an investment bank and who has a big secret; a young girl (played very realistically by Amelia Curtis) who lives in a squat and works behind the bar in the Dog Bar (clearly another reference to a Brixton drinking hole, the "Dog Star"); the young black guy who's the nephew of the church owner, and who is perhaps the less convincing of the actors chosen for the various roles; and finally the former National Front member who is trying to shake off the last traces of his shameful past, wishing to integrate fully with the afro-Caribbean community where he lives and has grown to love.

Whilst some things don't ring all that true (in any club, if someone is lying on the ground they will be surrounded by other clubbers trying to help), the film is pretty accurate. The squat scene (surely based on the famous Cooltan squat) is particularly inch-perfect in its detail. I am referring to the squat where Kat and the others live, rather than the Smoke House.

People who know Brixton will love it... every single house and street seems instantly recognisable... Electric Avenue, the Peace Park, Coldharbour Lane, Loughborough Road, Atlantic Avenue... fascinating and fun. But more importantly, they'll recognise all the character types, or even themselves, in the cast. The music is good (although perhaps not enough, but it is a sufficiently accurate depiction of the underground acid trance squat scene), and anyone who shares any antiglobalisation anticapitalist views and has been on Reclaim the Streets marches will also particularly love it. The anarchists are well depicted, accurately, not stereotypes. But if this is not your scene, don't let that put you off. You'll still enjoy the film, it just won't mean as much to you.

I wouldn't say it's a particularly feelgood movie, although there are some very amusing moments. The ending is a little sad and, perhaps, frustrating, but it is probably more realistic for that reason. It's not a downer, however.

If you get the DVD, watch the deleted scenes (well worth watching, what a shame they were deleted!) and the Story of the Filming. The latter is particularly good, showing the trials of tribulations of the cast, particularly Becky Bligh (who co-ordinated the street scenes). Entertaining stuff. Among the extra hidden features ('easter eggs') there are some short films. Be careful with your mental state when watching Short Film #3, about a bad time on drugs... it's depressing and disturbing. The main feature though, "South West 9", is relatively non-judgemental about drugs and is perfectly viewable.

Hats off to the tagline writer too. "No ordinary day trip", very droll indeed.

On the -4 to +4 scale, I give this a +2.

Where do you start with a film like this?

I'll try to be nice. Theres a few good ideas flying around here. The use of archive material is quite effective. Some of the cinematography is nice. Erm, the music's ok.

As a whole though, its a failure.

I wasn't expecting a lot - I rented this film purely because I live in the area portrayed. And thank god I do, as for the large part it was only being able to go 'oh look, thats suchandsuch street' that kept me viewing. And even then I almost turned it off before the end.

So whats so wrong here? First and foremost, the script. Its appalling. Character, plot, atmosphere, everything is sacrificed to a woefully misguided attempt to be cool. Every single character speaks in an immensely irritating 'street' style that utterly fails to ring true. The setting is a failed attempt to create a disperate group of 'crazy' characters around a 'cool' location. With good writing and charismatic acting this kind of thing can work (eg 'trainspotting'). For an example of how this could have been done in Brixton, check out 'Milk, Sulphate and Alby Stavation', a novel by Martin Millar. Set in Brixton, and more 'far out' than anything here, yet it still rings far truer.

The plot is poorly conceived, and eventually disintegrates into characters moving seemingly at random from one location to another. Eventually some plastic cockney gangsters turn up as the filmmakers throw some Guy Ritchie into the mix in the hope that it will impress someone.

Although it's not neccessarily a bad thing for a film to fail to resemble real life, the postcode title and archive news material would suggest that the filmmakers are attempting to reflect the real brixton here. Once again, they fail. The real Brixton does have its fair share of (mostly self-proclaimed) funky scenesters, but they're hard to spot among the desperate drug addicts, pushy dealers, aggresive petty criminals and put-upon locals trying to keep their head down and get through the day unscathed. To make a film about this region which either ignores or glamourises the overwhelming social problems present is ridiculous and irresponsible. If the film is intended as fantasy, then why tie it to a real place and a real history?

In the end though, I would happily overlooked all this if the film had entertained. Although the start is fairly promising, boredom soon sets in, followed by disbelief.

How some other reviewers found this film enjoyable is hard to understand, although the fact that most of them mention drugs in their reviews perhaps goes some way towards explaining. If you're a teenage male who thinks drugs are really really cool then you might get something out of this mess, but even then I'd imagine you'll be waiting for it to end by about halfway in.

To sum up - this film tries far too hard, and fails at virtually everything it tries.

Not an awful film, but certainly not a good one. Poorly cast characters seemed the main reason. The main three, (names escape me) but The Essex boy, the narrator & Mitch were ok, but Dowser & Nicola Stapleton characters though they were good, took some believing and seemed a bit 'Neighbours' esque. I know it was a drugs culture film, but there was barely a character or even scene where someone wasn't stoned, which got a bit over the top by the end, and required little acting talent or character depth. If you watch this film in a group & you're anything like us, you'll reach a point where roughly in unison you'll all shout "Just hurry up & find the ****ing suitcase will you, this has gone on long enough."

I don't often notice camerawork but I did here & it was excellent, so too the location shots. It just lacked any real plot & was drowned out by 'music' (allegedly). It was only set over 24 hours, so really ambled along with no great direction, but worth a look for Colin from 'London's Burning' & Finchy from 'The Office' cropping up for, albeit small parts & one or 2 other good scenes, but that's it.

4/10

while i appreciate how differcult it is to make any film, this is one that should have never have happened. dull, cliche characters, speaking south london wise ass dialogue about drugs. WOW, never seen that before.

what makes this film worse is how pretentious, a film as unorginal and simplistic as this one is. CRUSTIES are not in anyway cinematic, and how many more films am i going to have to sit through with the same s****y out-of-their-faces club scenes in. enough already.

i personally believe trainspotting was one of the worst things that ever happened to the british film industry. a great film, but one that has meant ever YOUNG british director feels the need to tell a gritty story about losers and drugs. let's all just look for something else to tell a story about. otherwise british cinema will be forever stuck in the mid nineties.