My comments about this film are prejudiced, I admit it. Reason? The majority of the location shoots were all around the neighbourhood where I lived as a teenager, and where I still teach teenagers today. This means the film immediately engages me on a personal and non-cinematic level.
One of the best British films of recent years, BILB manages to portray not only racial conflict, but also the tension that youth of all races have with traditional customs and parental expectations. With my familiarity of the area, and also its people, I can assure the viewer that on this level, the film works as accurately as a documentary might have, with the advantage that BILB is a whole lot more gripping.
In an age of mindless teenage screen fodder, this film is funny, touching and refreshingly reflective. For any audience, the film works - for a teenage audience, however, it deserves a 10/10. I've given it an eight because I'm not a teenager, and I try to make my scores reflect general, cinema-literate audiences.
A downside of the film structure is its pacing. It's a little uneven in its plot points, and worse still, I have yet to figure out the purpose or the plotting of the fight over the video camera. I saw it on first theatrical release, and perhaps I'm thick, but it simply made no sense at all even on re-play on video later.
But the film's most serious flaw is its casting - or rather, its lack of casting. Simply put, where was Beckham? Although, according to IMDb.com, he was represented by uncredited stock footage, the Beckham of the title simply did a no-show for the movie. An absolutely unforgivable omission, one that deserves my pulling the film rating down a notch. But I'll refrain, since it was almost certainly David Beckham's refusal to co-operate. The very least he could have done would have been a visit to the film shoot, so at least some actuality footage could have been run over the closing titles, instead of the obligatory teen-flick "goof" footage. If I could vote for Beckham, he'd get a zero for disappointing an otherwise very good (proud-to-be multi-cultural) British film comedy.
One of the best British films of recent years, BILB manages to portray not only racial conflict, but also the tension that youth of all races have with traditional customs and parental expectations. With my familiarity of the area, and also its people, I can assure the viewer that on this level, the film works as accurately as a documentary might have, with the advantage that BILB is a whole lot more gripping.
In an age of mindless teenage screen fodder, this film is funny, touching and refreshingly reflective. For any audience, the film works - for a teenage audience, however, it deserves a 10/10. I've given it an eight because I'm not a teenager, and I try to make my scores reflect general, cinema-literate audiences.
A downside of the film structure is its pacing. It's a little uneven in its plot points, and worse still, I have yet to figure out the purpose or the plotting of the fight over the video camera. I saw it on first theatrical release, and perhaps I'm thick, but it simply made no sense at all even on re-play on video later.
But the film's most serious flaw is its casting - or rather, its lack of casting. Simply put, where was Beckham? Although, according to IMDb.com, he was represented by uncredited stock footage, the Beckham of the title simply did a no-show for the movie. An absolutely unforgivable omission, one that deserves my pulling the film rating down a notch. But I'll refrain, since it was almost certainly David Beckham's refusal to co-operate. The very least he could have done would have been a visit to the film shoot, so at least some actuality footage could have been run over the closing titles, instead of the obligatory teen-flick "goof" footage. If I could vote for Beckham, he'd get a zero for disappointing an otherwise very good (proud-to-be multi-cultural) British film comedy.