County Lines

Having worked with youngsters in care, watching this was like watching a documentary. It could be a child or a few I have supported or read the case file of. What you see here isn't sensational and over the top. Police and social services have a lack of resources and time to deal with supporting young people who are exploited. The odds are ever stacked against youngsters who get into a cycle of exploitation. Would recommend this as a training resource. And an educational resource for youngsters. Drugs are rife and out of control on the uk. I hope this sheds a light on a very real situation in the uk 2024.

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.

Besides the educational value this movie, this movie is up to standard. It's tragic story and this could happen to any of the kids in our society.

If you're not in the know about drug trafficking parlance, then the title won't mean much - but that's not so important as we get to know "Tyler" (Conrad Khan). He lives with his drop-out mum "Toni" (Ashley Madekwe) and young sister. His school life is pretty torrid and despite efforts from the teachers and his mother to help, he remains introspective and prone to violence. Then he meets "Simon" (Harris Dickinson). He's a chavvy sort of guy, black Mercedes and plenty of cash to splash - and he doesn't overtly try to recruit the young "Tyler". He waits patiently for him to come to him - and that's when the spiral begins. He can make easy money by shipping narcotics from the city to the more rural punters where supply is more limited and more lucrative. What "Tyler" doesn't realise is, though, he's just a pawn in a game - and "Simon" is using loads of other lads like him to keep him in clover. It's the increasingly stark realisation that his choices are going to leave him battered, high and dry that gets us to a denouement that is predicable, but quite potent. Dickinson does quite well as the charmingly malevolent pusher with a big smile and a ruthless streak a mile wide, Madekwe also performs strongly as the mother who must get her act together to protect what is her's - but essentially this is a story about a young man with little hope and a hell of a lot of frustrations and Khan plays that role assuredly. At times the audio mix isn't the best and coupled with their dark and dingy flat can make the film a little difficult to follow at the start, but those same filming techniques also contribute to the general bleakness of the plot.