Honeytrap

Read the good reviews but found the film stylistically confusing.sometimes a true life TV discovery channel reconstruction ,sometimes a TV melodrama with way too much use of music ,and on occasions a drama documentary with the camera and sound just hanging around. Lead actress held it all together with a spectacularly varied and deep

range of facial expressive work. Hated to be disappointed . Needed a more cultural base to give it heart in a community. And more cinematic approach ..too much use of music to emphasise emotionally what we should see within the shots and structure...and too many Dream sequences from the lead character which are an easy way out to character development...needed to come from within the character and/or mis en scene.

Starts kind of slow but this is a really good movie.

The main character is young, nice and naive, she falls in love with an INSANELY attractive bad boy.

Dark, twisted and dramatic... I think women will relate to this movie more then men.

This was based on a real case of inter gang rivalry and a heartless honey trap to get one of the members. I remember how heartless the whole thing was. This film takes the basic premise and turns it into something altogether more human. Jessica Sula plays fifteen year Layla. She has come from Trinidad to live with her maternal mother in Brixton, South London.

Once there she starts to make new 'friends' at her school. They are mostly the sort who would be considered a 'bad influence' and she struggles to fit in. She does catch the eye of Alpha male and rapper Troy (Lucien Laviscount) and she drawn in caught by his macho charms. There is also Sean – who is an outsider within the group – he seems to be looked down on because of a perceived femininity however, he falls for Layla. This is something that will not be tolerated. This is though a story of lust, jealousy, anime, bullying and the need to belong.

The subjects are all dealt with in a responsible way and everyone puts in great performances. Jessica Sula is particularly good playing the out of water, new kid on the block who has a good heart but will not let her head rule it. The location shooting is all authentic too and that gives this much more credibility. This is a film that did not garner that much attention on release and I was not expecting great things and I have to say I was extremely pleasantly surprised – one that is easy to recommend.

I thought this was a surprising, solid movie. Overall, however, definitely something you should skip if you don't have much time. The lead (Jessica Sula) did a great job. I would say the rating on this one is definitely a little low. It was a very realistic and upsetting story.

Also, for a movie from 2014, I would say this has a really diverse cast, which I thought was nice. I didn't let that affect my rating, though.

I would say the use of music was rather heavy-handed. I saw another review here that said the same thing, and I definitely agree, which is what made me knock it down from a potential 7 to, unfortunately, a 6.

This movie was very well-done. You can tell that it's an low budget movie but that fact isn't distracting. The characters are well thought out. The portrayal is very believable. There were moments I was laughing, gasping, grinning and sobbing.

Very well done. I recommend it.