Review: Rocks

-


Shola "Rocks" (Bukky Bakray) is a teenager living in a council estate in England with her mother (Layo-Christina Akinlude) and her younger brother Emmanuel. (D'angelou Osei Kissiedu) When their mom leaves them on their own, Rocks finds herself avoiding social workers trying to take them away, and trying to find a place for she and her brother to stay.

I hadn't heard of this film until the BAFTA nominations came out and this film got a whopping 7 of them. The film reminds me of Fish Tank in a way. The actors feel so organic in these roles, yet green at the same time. Not because they're struggling with the material, but because they feel so authentic. 

Rocks is very complex. She goes back and forth between being very responsible and a bit of a trouble maker as all teenagers are. Her love for her brother is genuine, but she shouldn't be burdened with being his sole caregiver. One of my favorite aspects was her friendship with Sumaya. (Kosar Ali) Sumaya might be the best friend I've seen in film all year. She's there to listen, she offers supporting, and she ultimately forgives Rocks for being too proud to listen to her. I wanted to yell at my screen when Rocks taking out her frustrations on Sumaya. She's a good one. I could watch more tales of Sumaya and Rocks doing there thing.

I did become frustrated with the film at times, because stupid teens gonna be stupid teens, but it was never unbelievable. I never felt like the roadblocks were for the sake of plot, they were very real things a girl in her situation would encounter.

You can currently stream this on U.S Netflix and I highly recommend taking the time to watch it.

Recommended: Yes

Grade: B+

Memorable Quote: "What's the problem? Talk to me, I don't get it." - Sumaya (Kosar Ali)

Comments

  1. keith71_98June 1, 2021 at 12:06 PM

    This one is completely new to me. Sounds interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. thevoid99June 1, 2021 at 3:21 PM

    I have heard about this film and I'm interested to see this as I hope to check it out soon.

    ReplyDelete
  3. RuthJune 1, 2021 at 5:22 PM

    I kinda missed BAFTA nominations so I haven't seen this yet but glad to hear it's on Netflix. "...stupid teens gonna be stupid teens" Ahahaha, my bestie's only child is turning 15 and that statement certainly rings true.

    ReplyDelete
  4. BirgitJune 2, 2021 at 3:58 PM

    I don't know about this movie but it sounds like a good coming of age type of film and one a bit more intelligent that the rest. teens are teens which means you want to slap them sometimes:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamJune 3, 2021 at 6:17 AM

      Yes lol. I'm not ready for that phase of parenthood yet. Thankfully I've still got a handful of years before that happens.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing ...
Read more

Indie Gems: Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

-
Image
Passionate about your profession? I had never heard of this film until it ended up on one of Jason's favorite horror movie lists around Halloween. It immediately sounded interesting to me, so of course I threw it in my Netflix queue. (and if I'm just now watching it after adding it around Halloween, you know how ridiculous my queue is) Taylor (Angela Goethals) is a journalist who, along with a film crew decides to follow around a serial killer named Leslie Vernon. (Nathan Baesel) He plans on doing the typical slasher thing - getting a bunch of drunk teens in an abandoned house and knocking them off one by one. He gets advice from a retired serial killer, Eugene (Scott Wilson) and is threatened by a man who's on to him, Doc Holloran (Robert Englund) Taylor and crew are there capturing it all. Leslie Vernon is fucking hilarious to start with, and clearly very passionate about what he does. He tells Taylor all of his secrets and can barely contain his excitemen...
Read more

My Favorite Movie Youtube Channels

-
Image
Starting around 2018, I started watching Youtube for more than just movie trailers or music videos whenever a new one dropped. Now I'm in full blown subscription mode and don't bat an eyelash at watching a Youtube video that's over an hour long. I watch Youtube for a few different categories of content, but one of them that I love most is movie/TV essays and commentary, and that's what I'm going to talk about today. Below is a list of my favorite movie related Youtube channels. Let me know if you're familiar with them too, or if you have any you'd like to recommend to me.  Double Toasted - I'm honestly surprised this channel isn't bigger. I first came across Korey and Martin when they reviewed War for the Planet of the Apes a few months before it hit theaters and I thought they were hysterical. While their full length videos stream on Twitch, they often upload their movie reviews and commentary on youtube and they're always hilarious. They've...
Read more