The ‘British Urban’ Cycle

Bullet Boy, Kidulthood, Adulthood, Rollin’ with the Nines; what do these films have in common? London, gangs, guns, crime and grime. If Ritchie’s movies are over-the-top Guns ‘n’ Geezers tripe. With a knowing smirk directed at the 1960s and more shallow postmodernism than you could shake a stick (or gun) at then the ‘British Urban’ Cycle is its antithesis.
With real locales, real characters, real stories and real concerns; the new breed of British crime film owes more to the late 1950s and early 1960s Kitchen-Sink drama than to any British crime film before it. London in these films isn’t even the East End. There’s no geezers running their manor from a backstreet pub. It’s kids in single-parent families living in North London just trying to get by. The parents lament their children joining gangs. These new criminals might not have the complete family unit but they have no need to turn to crime. They have material things (Nike trainers, Adidas tracksuits, BMXs) but crime is a sign of masculinity and brings honour, and respect, for your name.
So what are these films telling us? That London has a knife and gun crime problem, that gangs exist, that crime is about respect not money, that the pursuit of money is to facilitate the earning of respect, and that the only way to get that money is through dealing drugs, shooting thugs and not being taken for a bunch of mugs.
As longh as crime of this variety exists then the films will continue to follow. The four films mentioned at the top of this musing are (for my money) modern classics in the British crime genre. They are realistic, brutally violent and brutally honest. Performances are superb and they have encouraged the production of some the finest work in the grime scene. This may be the most important British crime genre cycle since the spivs.

Paz Bassra