County Lines

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.