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Well I just finished watching City Rats and feel a bit disappointed. I possibly had the wrong idea of a film that was staring Danny Dyre and Tamer Hassan, both of which have built a reputation around the cheeky cockney gangster film genre. This however was a complet tangent to those films, despite still featuring drugs, guns and prostitution. It was a character driven look at the lives of 6 or so people within London. We follow each through their story, and as the film continues we learn more about them and how they are linked. The links between them are really loose, and I like that, because in other films they try and shove the relationships in your face and it always seems false and forced.
The lighting and photography was astonding in this film, I didn't see a single shot that made me cringe because it was framed badly. All the dark in doors scenes were lit really well so that the audiance weren't just presented with a black void and the characters face, which really pulls the user in. There was a slight yellow hint on the film, which made it feel a bit dirty, which lent itself to the city and the content of the film.
The main storylines follow the characters dealing with issues as diverse as suicide and homosexuality, but never really directly addresses why the characters are feeling this way. This could be due to the limited time to really explore each of the situations, or maybe a lack of understanding by the writers. The end result is that each of them seems to blame their situation for how the feel or act, and it ends up portraying London as a city full of misserable people who have been driven to the wrong side of the law due to their location.
Some of you may know that I have just moved back to the Surrey/London border, and whilst not directly in the city, I am only half an hour away from central. I would like people to realise that London is not a lonely and abandonded place, it is rich and diverse with people and culture. I have some really good memories of this place, and I hope to have more. But at the same time I am longing for the people and the place where I have spent the majority of my last 5 years. It is quite a shock to the system when you move anyway, but moving away from the live that I had created for myself up in Staffordshire was a big shock to the system.
After working three days at my new job, I have already been stuck in a 2 and half hour commute (something I never want to happen again, but probably will), had lots of meetings with all sorts of people I can't remember the names of, and started a new project that I have jubiously named Jumala. I am hoping to create an internal blog about the progress with this project and then publish it on here once launched as it will deal with a lot of web development issues that others may find interesting. But back to the point, despite having this wealth of entertainment and culture on my doorstep, and being in a job which I have been assured is a 'great career move', I find myself thinking back to a few weeks ago when I was up in Staffordshire, and the life I had there. I can't help but miss it, and want it back.