What begins as just another geezer-gangster Brit-pic mutates into something more unexpected in editor-turned-director/co-writer Andrew Hulme’s brooding feature debut. Frederick Schmidt is convincingly rattled as Dave, a standard-issue gofer who brings his friend Tariq (Aymen Hamdouchi) on a drug-deal drop, with life-changing consequences. Increasingly adrift among his Hoxton clan, Dave seeks redemption in Tariq’s mosque. Inspired by the real-life experiences of co-writer/actor Martin Askew, this walks a tightrope between saleable cliche (sweary men, tart-with-a-heart women) and adventurous reinvention. Paranoid sound design and woozy atmospherics accentuate the film’s more experimental aspects.
