听 User Rating 
Nick Love, in his debut feature as writer-director, treads familiar ground although there is a discernible talent at work. The setting is a south-east London estate, a grid that may have looked good as an architect's model, but has since become a concrete and brick desert inhabited by those too poor to move out or too downtrodden to care. A group of teenage youths (Paul Nicholls, Roland Manookian, Alexi Rodney, Danny Dyer) enliven their tedious existence by thieving, vandalism, getting drunk, and pushing their luck too far, with violence and death the inevitable results.
We have been here many times before, and there are few more clich茅d themes than the alienated urban young during the hot summer.
The older members of the community are hardly worthy examples. Phil Daniels (who a couple of decades ago played similar parts to the young leads) is a half-mad Falklands veteran who furnishes his flat in a minimalist military style. Richard Driscoll plays a cousin who has moved up the social ladder to become a shady estate agent. David Thewlis is a weak father.
In spite of spirited direction and well-shaded performances it is difficult to sympathize with the main characters who seem too dim to appreciate looming trouble. Their anti-social attitudes are almost applauded rather than condemned. One, for instance, seems incapable of walking past a parked car without smashing a side window and nicking the radio. If you have ever had this happen to you, you know it's not funny. Nick Love can do better than this.
