Fans of the Brit-Grit genre are going to be very much at home in this story of carnage.

Director: Gabe Turner

Cast: Harley Sylvester, Doug Allen, David Essex, Jay Simpson, Martin Hancock, Vas Blackwood, Richard Blackwood

Rating: 15

Running Time: 92 mins

Release: DVD & Blu-ray December 29th

It’s the battle of the baddies in this urban tale of crime and violence, where being top dog is a matter of life and death. Directed and written by Gabe Turner,who’s mostly known for his documentary work, The Guvnors is a disturbing story that blurs the lines of good and bad, while delivering a tale of rivalry, ambition, legend and status.

On an urban South East London estate, Rizzle Kicks star Harley Sylvester plays the ferocious leader of a violent gang, Adam Shenko. Running his gang with a hideous brand of nasty, slicing up faces and beating the living life out of everybody, Adam begins to crave more power as the legend behind the block’s old gang, The Guvnors, refuses to die down. Seeking out more information of these one time hard men, Adam stars to throw his weight around in the hopes of taking over the street. 

In the mean time, onetime leader of football hooligan gang The Guvnors, Mitch, played by Doug Allen, has left behind his life of grievous bodily harm and has set up house in the suburbs with his vacant wife and troubled young son. Soon Mitch finds himself back on the square as Adam does all he can to destroy The Guvnors’ legacy and unspoken control. Total carnage ensues as the two men attempt to rip each other apart. 

With such an urban, British social realist vibe to the narrative, Turner decides to use colour filtration to emotively engage his audience. When projecting moments of modern day, Turner uses a blue haze over his footage to engage in a cold and isolated sense, connoting at the negative and dark aspects of contemporary gang culture. These scenes are then juxtaposed with the sepia toned flashbacks of Mitch’s heyday in The Guvnors, presenting a classic and traditional ideology. This immediately separates the two protagonists, ensuring that the audience instantly sides with Mitch’s character, very much forming a good vs evil kind of narrative. This then relays with a sense of old vs new, solidifying the idea of conflict and battle as the general theme of the film.

At just 95 minutes in running time, The Guvnors has difficulty in finding it’s correct pace. The first act, in which Adam spends the majority of his time spitting through his teeth at any mention of The Guvnors, is dragged out too long and therefore the tension Turner so desperately wants to create, is lost to unnecessary scenes of drawn out conversation and passive aggressive sniffing from Adam. Luckily, the tension is picked up slap bang in the middle of the narrative in a shocking scene of excessive violence when Adam takes revenge on Mitch’s estranged father. The continuing narrative does unfortunately switch back to slow burning with momentarily exciting fits of brutal violence. 

In his debut role, Harley Sylvester gives a disturbingly dark performance that completely denies his cheeky chappy Rizzle Kicks persona. Sylvester tries his very best with a script that’s biggest insult is repeatedly calling somebody “Granddad”. Making himself seen both vulnerable and beastly in his role as thug Adam, Sylvester certainty hits all the marks in what one would come to expect from this kind of genre. He’s calculating while animalistic, he’s a bully yet a brother and despite his immediate connotation as ‘the bad guy’, Sylvester definitely gives his all to create a deep character. One would hope that this is perhaps just the tip of the iceberg for Sylvester and that his performance in this film will inspire future roles with slightly more multidimensional narratives and characters. 

Doug Allen plays Mitch in a fairly familiar character, he is very much your typical bad guy turned good who, despite his attempts at staying away from his thuggish past, finds himself right in the middle of a blood bath. Other performances from the likes of Martin Hancock, Richard Blackwood, Vas Blackwood, Jay Simpson and particularly Charlie Palmer Merkell all hit the mark of your typical urban police form and hard-arse gang members. 

Unfortunately, the main issue with The Guvnors is the slightly uninspired crossing of the hooligan and hoodie genre that lack real narrative drive and enough cause and effect to keeps its audience interested. It’s difficult to truly connect with a narrative where one is made to chose between a knife wielding hoodlum and a former knife wielding hoodlum. There are a little too many mixed-messages in each scene, Adam’s gang lashes out and Mitch’s old-timers warn them of their mistakes yet can’t wait to brand anything remotely pointy and take revenge. Pot-kettle-black Guvnor gang, pot-kettle-black. 

There’s no doubt that those who are a fan of this kind of Brit-Grit genre are going to be very much at home in this story of carnage where respect and fear go hand in hand. However, anybody looking for something more than a blood bath may not find it here. With enjoyable performances from the main cast and much needed comedic relief from supporting characters, The Guvnors isn’t going to be challenging it’s audiences too much but will definitely be lunching Harley Sylvester into the best of British cinema and will keep fans of urban narratives on their toes. 

Verdict

The film is available to buy on DVD and Blu-ray December 29th. 

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