Noel Clarke's one of the few British filmmakers today who is making movies worth seeing.
Sure, sometimes his authorial voice can be a little young and naive, and characters are too keen to verbal motives and emotion (even when their throats are crushed, as in Kidulthood). It's to be expected, the guy's still only thirty four at date of writing.
These films shouldn't be taken as "finished products", they're the works of a man trying out his craft. Sure, bits are overwritten, some of the acting is uncertain, and lots of this one owes more to the fact that he made friends with Kevin Smith than any real inspirational development. But it's a commendable learning curve.
This isn't a film in the same vein as the aforementioned Kidulthood or its sequel... it's a film where girls show they're empowered by beating up men or having promiscuous sex. A film where lesbianism is a byword for titillation, and men are predatory by nature. Yet its relatively innovative plot structure rewards, and most of the characters engage.
Despite its cartoonesque excesses, 4.3.2.1 is the kind of film that makes you want to see where Noel Clarke goes next. Having said this, every person I've showed it to has assured me it's a dreadful film with appalling acting, so this may be a personal blindspot.
Sure, sometimes his authorial voice can be a little young and naive, and characters are too keen to verbal motives and emotion (even when their throats are crushed, as in Kidulthood). It's to be expected, the guy's still only thirty four at date of writing.
These films shouldn't be taken as "finished products", they're the works of a man trying out his craft. Sure, bits are overwritten, some of the acting is uncertain, and lots of this one owes more to the fact that he made friends with Kevin Smith than any real inspirational development. But it's a commendable learning curve.
This isn't a film in the same vein as the aforementioned Kidulthood or its sequel... it's a film where girls show they're empowered by beating up men or having promiscuous sex. A film where lesbianism is a byword for titillation, and men are predatory by nature. Yet its relatively innovative plot structure rewards, and most of the characters engage.
Despite its cartoonesque excesses, 4.3.2.1 is the kind of film that makes you want to see where Noel Clarke goes next. Having said this, every person I've showed it to has assured me it's a dreadful film with appalling acting, so this may be a personal blindspot.