Rocks

This film is like every great film - multi-faceted, which means it has resonance that is almost universal. It's about a black girl. It's multi-racial. It's about children born of recent immigrant families. It's about coming of age. It's about being a girl. It's about mental health with limited support for families affected. It's about a brother and sister. It's about working classes. It's urban. It's London. It's Hackney. It's amazing and the story of Rocks and Emmanuel made me cry.

I chose the girl's story for personal resonance because girls on the verge of adulthood with talents, ambitions and dreams fire the film.

Rocks is British. Her grandma is Nigerian. Her mother troubled. She has a younger brother who loves dinosaurs and who has the lines that are the emotional heart of the film. "Close your eyes and think of everything that makes you happy. Keep breathing in and out." He says this when his sister and him are displaced to a grubby hotel as she tries to keep them together in their mother's absence and with Social Services looking to find them.

Before her mum leaves Rocks was able to live as a normal teenager with a group of friends I loved and envied. After her mum leaves the friendships are challenged and the challenges are coming of age, as maturity replaces innocence.

I have no more of the story to relate because it is the characterisation and superb acting that brings everything alive. Just has to be seen.

At the beginning of 'Rocks', the audience sees the images in a vertical rectangular frame, as if they were filmed with a smartphone. For a second, I feared this was going to be the case during the whole film. Fortunately, it is a gimmick that's repeated only now and then for a few seconds. In fact, it is quite a nice and appropriate feature, because the film is about teenage girls. As teenage girls do, they film each other with their smartphones. The images add to the authenticity of this film, which does a very good job by showing the girls' lives as real as can be. Rocks, as everyone calls her, is a normal and happy girl, living in a multicultural working class part of London. But her life is turned upside down when one day her mother dissapears, leaving only a note and some money, telling Rocks she 'needs time to clear her head'. From then on, Rocks has to take care of herself and her little brother. She doesn't tell anyone about her mother's dissapearance, fearing the authorities, but her situation gets more and more difficult. The young actresses are phenomenal. This is as close as you can get to a fly-on-the-wall account of modern teenage life. During the film, friendships develop, as well as mutual aversions. Rocks tests the loyalty of her friends to the limit. Apart from being a portrait of a young girl in difficult circumstances, it is also a tribute to female power and loyalty. Apart from Rocks's little brother and some school teachers, there are almost no male characters in the film. At times, the film reminded me of 'Entre les murs', the French movie about a difficult school class. At other times, it reminded me of 'Nobody knows', the Japanese movie of children left behind by their mother. Anyone who enjoyed these films, wil enjoy this one too.

This film is fantastic. It's reminiscent of early Andrea Arnold and I couldn't help thinking of Fishtank when watching this film. However I think this might be better.

The authenticity of the story is unmatched, with incredible performances from Rocks and her brother, accompanied with beautifully composed images and a fitting score to match.

The film will make you consider the difficulties that we experience as young people growing up in the 21st century and very subtly nods to the different experiences young people have while growing up, depending on their socio-economic background. The story is so heartbreakingly real and so human, that it hits so hard and will leave you with a tear in your eye.

Rocks is a film that was really powerful. It was heartfelt, touching, and emotional. You were able to get wrapped up into the story and experience something that felt real. You were able to cringe at the lows the main character reaches, you were able to smile at small character moments, and you were able to cry when things turned somber. This film is wonderfully crafted, with its excellent writing, editing, direction, and story, it's truly remarkable. I have nothing but good things to say. I rate Rocks a 9/10.

Another outstanding piece of contemporary British film, as a teenage schoolgirl finds herself alone and left responsible for her younger brother. Soul destroying in so many ways, performances as good as any you'll find, a depiction of a world we'd like to ignore but, unfortunately, reinforcing a theme whose variations are common and increasingly so.