100 Streets (2016)

This is a tale of some loosely connected lives in London. Max Moore (Idris Elba) is a famous ex-rugby player and a player. He likes his coke and women. His wife Emily (Gemma Arterton) is having revenge sex with a photographer (Tom Cullen) and plans on getting back into acting through her old friend Terrance (Ken Stott) who also does community service. Terrance meets Kingsley (Franz Drameh) who has committed a misdemeanor and is preforming community service at a cemetery. Kingsley sells pot and is trapped in the streets. He wants out, but doesn't know how. At the cemetery we see George (Charlie Creed-Miles) a singing cabby and football coach. He wants to adopt children with his wife Kathy (Kierston Wareing) active in community service.The stories were somewhat interesting and I wished they had connected George better than what they did. They all came to some sort of closure, but I failed to see the point in all of it, other than we are all somehow connected, a theme of which I have grown bored .Guide: F-word, sex, nudity.

Following the lives of three central characters, 100 Streets takes you on a journey through central London, through lives, loves, and loss. Around those three characters, their satellites, who are all just as important as them, for they help shape and define their futures.A film about snap decisions, the bigger picture, and what ifs, this is a great film in the style of Pawno (Paul Ireland, 2015). Very glad I picked this one up; you will be, too.

I read some bad reviews for this film but as a fan of Elba I just covered my eyes and ears and said "nananana." I was wrong.This film is just not good. If you've seen the trailer, that's about it. The whole film is in there.The production qualities are high, the acting is mostly good, but the film is less than the sum of its parts. They should've focused on one story and expanded on it, instead of getting hints, glimpses and slices of different, completely-unrelated lives.SPOILER I thought the stories would be intertwined, a sort of cause-and-effect type thing like many films do, but no. The stories happen in parallel. They don't really affect one another. This film could've been presented as a bunch of short films about people in London and they would've been rated poorly. END SPOILERThere simply isn't enough time to deal with all these stories. If you think that 90 minutes is enough time to deal with a failing marriage and affairs, a death, a misfit in a lethal street gang and a few subplots (if you can call them that) then this film is for you.The trailer made it look to be all about Elba and probably revealed most of the Elba stuff. The rest is just inconsequential. The film consists of several subplots and has no major plot or overarching narrative.It's sad to waste all the talent that went into this film - actors, director, crew, etc. when the script is so horrendously poor.

Every so often, and after a lot of trawling through some pretty awful films, a gem is discovered.A Hundred Streets is a gem of a film. Raw, powerful, with acting of the highest caliber. I've just finished watching it this very minute, and I could watch it again. There aren't many films you could say that about recently.I'm not going to give away any of the plot, as that would be a rather shabby exercise. But safe to say I enjoyed every single second of this wonderful film.Yes, I liked it. You may already have guessed that. 10 /10 from me.