Rocks

Shola 'Rocks' Omotoso (Bukky Bakray) is a teenage girl living in London and the spectre of adulthood is flying at her fast. All she wants to do is hang out with her best friend Sumaya (Kosar Ali) and make money using her make up skills but when her mother leaves home she's left to look after her young brother Emmanuel (D'angelou Osei Kissiedu) and her friends and hobbies begin to look trivial. Fearing that she'll be separated from her brother if social services get involved they both leave their flat and try to come up with a plan to survive.

How well do you remember your teenage years and the friendships you had? If you were a boy it was probably mock or be mocked. If you were a girl you might have been lucky enough to have been part of the type of friendships depicted in Rocks. A friendship that gives this film a warm feeling despite the hardships Rocks faces, one that fills it's scenes with a crackling joie ve vivre that will leave you buzzing long after this film is over. Everything here feels genuine, it's like the camera is eavesdropping on a bunch of real life people and not actors. 

The whole film has that glorious Shane Meadows/Andrea Arnold feel about it, one of semi improvisation but without the awkwardness that sometimes can ride on that techniques coat tails. The scenes ebb and flow gracefully and feel intimate and then when arguments erupt they feel apocalyptic, just like everything does when you're a hormonal teenager on the edge of the hugeness of adulthood. Here you'll be laughing along with Rocks and Sumaya and reminiscing on your own time in school and seconds later you'll have your head in your hands whispering "no no no" to yourself because you remember EXACTLY how the characters on screen are feeling. It's all so relatable and real.

Life in London is depicted as a harsh and unforgiving when you aren't in the right percentage but Rocks thankfully doesn't revel in the misery of the situation in the same way films like the Hood Trilogy from Noel Clarke did. There's no need for fake melodrama here. Rocks just wants to be left alone to grow up with Emmanuel but of course she can't. Despite what she thinks she's a child looking after a child. People aren't out to get her, they only want to help but to teenage eyes it feels like a betrayal. Rocks portrays that heightened teenage emotion perfectly. The highs are high (that visit to an expensive apartment that feels like a break from life, the train journey, that dance class) but the lows are brutal (tears on the side of the road, a shop stockroom realisation, a vicious and cutting argument). You'll be wrung out after it, but happy you watched. Director Sarah Gavron has made something really special here.

Bukky Bakray as Rocks is just fantastic. The film is hers. It's one of those dream debuts from an actor who just nails the part. You can't imagine anyone else paying the role. She's lovable, carefree and naturalistic and quietly powerful, carrying no baggage from previous roles. I hope this film makes her a star. 

Rocks is on Netflix now. For some reason the  netflix algorithm has buried it away from the homepage so you'll have to look for it. But you'll be delighted you did.