Shank (2009)

As a review of the film, I must at this time address the method of criticism. Numerous people responding to the film do not address the issue of gangs in postmodern times. In fact the term "gang" and what a gang is has evolved from the 1930 to present day (Rail, 1998). The idea of gangs overseas is completely different from the idea of gangs from that of the United States and the United Kingdom. Even the idea of gangs in London has changed (McDonald, 2010). For this very reason, it is unreasonable to assume that the definition of a gang today is the same as in the 1930's for example.Today has a different definition of what a gang is (Donahue & Willis, eds., 2002). Thus, I must address a more problematic issue with reviews on here. They are don't deal with the concepts of the historical and political environment of the film. This concept is a theory call New Historicism and Cultural Criticism (Tyson, 2006). Even Queer Theory, which addresses this issue, has yet to flesh itself out in the realm of New Historicism and Cultural Criticism.Now we need to deal with the issue of gender and sexuality. In fact, gender and sexuality has been under the gaze of Queer Theorists for a very long time, especially the 1990's (Butler, 2006). This is a reason why "gang" has different meanings. We even have people fighting back at the idea of "Queer," even in academia (Balswick & Balswick, 2008). For this reason, it is necessary to completely understand that it is unfair to place an unreasonable standard on this film.The film does reflect the issues of Queering gang related issues. This includes numerous issues of equality. It doesn't hide the concept of drugs and sex. For this reason, I praise the film for its delivery. Many expect the chemistry to be the protagonist and antagonist to fall in blind-love with each other. This is by far not the case. Thus, it is unfair to say that tension doesn't exist.The disjointed issues of the movie deal with the disjoint concepts of reality. It is Queer Realism Fiction in a film that I praise on numerous levels – including breaking ground is pushing it mainstream. I can call this the Gang Queer Realism version of "Rounding Third," by Walter G. Meyer.However, my issue is that the film crew should know that in Realism Fiction, the use of any special effects should be minimum.References Balswick, J. K., & Balswick, J. O. (2008). Authentic human sexuality: An integrated Christian approach. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic. Butler, J. (2006). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York, NY: Routledge. Donahue, S., & Willis, C. (Eds.). (2002). Gangs: Stories of life and death from the streets. New York, NY: Thunder Mouth Press. McDonald, B. (2010). Gangs of London: 100 years of mob warfare. Wrea Green, UK: Milo. Paris, J. W. (2011). The end of sexual identity: Why sex is too important to define who we are. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books. Rail, G. (1998). Sport and postmodern times. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Tyson, L. (2006). Critical theory today: A user-friendly guide. New York, NY: Routledge.

I'm going to start by saying that this film is one of the best examples of "deceptive advertising" as it was sold as a "Skins meets Latter Days" and it ended up being a dull story about disrupted teenagers. The lack of originality was the main plate.First of all that was not a gang by any means. It was simply a group of freaks vandalizing everything on sight and assaulting people just for fun. Gangs deal with drug trafficking, arms, robberies... You wanna watch a gang-related gay film try "Our Lady of the Assassins" that one does deal with the reality thousands of teenagers in gangs have to deal.Anyways, moving onto the characters none of them make anything good to the film. Cal was a complete fraud: Somehow "attracted" to his friend Jonno yet they never engage in anything and that sudden attraction to Olivier made no sense at all. Why would he help him in the first place? Love at first sight? It was a very ridiculous move. Jonno's attraction to Cal was way too obvious. So obvious that it makes you thing he was the "closeted gay trying to come out". During the first 20 mins. I thought they would eventually end up together. About Olivier could he be any more queerer? and well Nessa I don't even want to talk about her.However what made this film an unforgiven waste of time were those over-the-edge coincidences. Just look at this: Cal's boyfriend, Olivier, happened to be one of Scott's student. Scott hook up with the guy (Cal) who put his partner into comma while he was at the hospital. Oh what a coincidence! The filmmaker was trying to show his Gonzalez-Iñarritu's abilities but he failed big time.I wish I could have rated this 0/10.Cheers.

This takes place in Bristol in the UK. Cal (Wayne Virgo) is part of a gang who go out and casually beat up people for no reason. Cal is also gay. He can't tell his gang and has anonymous degrading sex and tries to hide his feelings in drugs. Then one day his gang attack an innocent French student named Olivier (Marc Laurent). Cal intervenes and saves Olivier because he falls in love with him at first sight. They become lovers and the members of Cal's gang swear they will get back at him.SPOILERS! OK--there are plenty of problems here. Laurent is a dreadful actor and has NO chemistry with Virgo at all. Their relationship never rings true. The HEAVY British accents make most of the dialogue unintelligible. The rap music is very annoying. There's a twist near the climax involving Nessa (Alice Payne) that I didn't believe for a minute. And the rape scene at the end was too graphic and far too disturbing. However the plot is good and interesting. Virgo has a difficult role but pulls it off. Also he's a very handsome man and there's plenty of nude shots of him (front and back). The sex scene between Cal and Olivier is explicit but very erotic and hot! There's also plenty of simulated gay sex scenes and frequent male nudity. Also Tom Bott is excellent as Cal's best friend Junno. The sexual tension between those two was incredible. I wish the movie had been about them being lovers! Also their acting during the rape scene at the end was just superb.All in all its not without its faults but it does work. Graphic and powerful. I give it a 7.

A teenage gang of three molests weak, effeminate looking passersby in some slightly dreary, somewhat hip looking (courtesy of perfunctory soundtrack) goth/abandoned industry area. The subplot is that in that kind of malfunctioning family/triangle, one member, Cal, is secretly gay and the other male one is repressing his tendency towards his mate; peppered with an obnoxious - yet fragile in the end - female lead who cannot face her dark secret, it all soon comes down to a violent confrontation; add an exchange french student to the mix, a student who is OK with his sexuality and there you have it. I mean it with some tender amazement, for this is I think the innovation the film offers; as if the grit-brit tradition of film-making meets the more insouciant french one via its representatives. It mixes somewhat awkwardly though; some emphasis on the gayness of the french student (esp. the lush scene of him and Cal by the pool, surrounded by candles, and sipping wine does not seem over the top - even though it is a small one, without words - thanks to the good effort of Wayne Virgo who communicates excitedness) seems incongruous, though this is not as much wounding as his really unconvincing acting at the final explosion. After that the film gets melodramatic. We were expecting that a bit, yes, but something is lost in the temperature of the message, social redemption through love. (It is an obviously small budget film, but that is OK, if not to its advantage.) Worth for a look just for the effort of his 21-year old director and the instinctively observed scene at the cemetery.