"Coming Up" (2003) TV series 2003-????

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

An anthology of half hour films by new writers

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Anthony Flanagan

...

Goose / ... (2 episodes, 2006-2008)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Ideal World Productions

'Take My Heart' – At times unconvincing but still an impacting and poetic look at black on black violence (even if it is a bit biased and non-judgemental)

Kunta is a good boy growing up with his Gran, putting in the hours at school but getting bullied because he has a soft boy image. Blacka sees good in Kunta and steps in to help educate him about the streets – becoming closer friends when Kunta proves that he can step up when he has to – Blacka even introduces him to the gorgeous Aaliyah. Six months later, Kunta is a lot more blacked out and lives with Aaliyah, while Blacka is blazing it for real on the streets but it is only a matter of time before Kunta's relationships put him in a situation where he has to step up again.

Black on black crime is a serious problem, as is the fact that black boys (not girls) underachieve in secondary schools in the UK. Add to this the image of what is acceptable for black males in terms of image, language and attitude (suffice to say manners and smart dress are not the uniform of black youth) and it is apparent that perhaps the main barrier to rising up is not just racism but internal factors as well. This film looks at gun crime within the black community and it does it reasonably well – building characters and stories before ending them. The problem with it is that it doesn't stimulate thought – it sits on the fence and refuses to judge any of its characters, in fact at some points it appears to be justifying the black on black crime as part of the community! I'm sure this was not its intention but by not judging the crime it ran the line close to just accepting it and showing it.

The writing tries a bit too hard to capture the street slang of black youth and doesn't have any character that doesn't talk in London ebonics – this was not realistic and felt like the film going a bit far. Part of the problem is the cast Trey Glasgow does OK in painting an innocent sucked into crime by way of his friends but at times he is unconvincing (reacting to a rather poor rap from Blacka for example). Michael Objora's Blacka is a lot easier to believe because he is a 'bad man' albeit a matured one. Kassia Haddad is gorgeous, pure and simple and her sweet looks won me over even if her performance didn't. Apart from her monologue at the end she sounded like she was reading off a board – sorry but she did! Generally the support cast are OK but they don't do much than play general ethnic stereotypes, an element of truth to them but they are stereotypes nonetheless.

Overall this is an OK film, delivered in a natural style with some good poetic/hip hop delivery to it. The subject is engaging but the film fails to really add insight or comment to the film and at best this means it sits rather uncomfortably on the fence, but at worst it appears to almost condone the violence as part of a black community. The young cast do OK but the dialogue makes it sound like they are trying too hard. Still worth a look though as part of the interesting 'Coming Up' series of films from new directors.