British drama set in the 1980s, in which a Jamaican man is tasked with delivering a drug shipment to London.
Neither a luridly enjoyable piece of Scarface-style pulp or a nuanced genre subversion, Idris Elba’s directorial debut is a fitfully entertaining 1980s gangster thriller.
Promising but emotionally unsatisfying directorial debut from Idris Elba, focusing on the Jamaican gang scene.
A fresh look at an ’80s immigrant community from Jamaica to London, but patchy and predictable.
Its plot is riddled with holes. However, taken as modern-day folklore – as a music-driven cautionary tale about a young Jamaican rake’s progress – it is an invigorating ride.
For his directorial debut, Elba mixes cliche and social complexity in this adaptation of Victor Headley’s novel about a young Jamaican in 80s Hackney.
The plot, in truth, doesn’t make much sense, a problem separate from Elba’s boldest creative choice: an admirable refusal to soften the Jamaican patois of the characters.
Yardie and the complexity of black crime cinema.
General release. Check local listings for show times.