Today I decided to get around to watch Anti-Social, a British film, written and directed by Reg Travvis (Screwed). I had heard of Anti- Social around its release time due to one of its stars being Mr Josh Myers, a very cool guy who has featured in a few films that I watched and talked about. Namely Green Street 3 (Dir by James Nunn), White Collar Hooligan 3 (Dir by Paul Tanter) and Screwed (Dir by Reg Travvis). Josh s career is one that I am following as each role I've seen him in, he always gives his all to the character. Anti-Social is no different in that regard although the film itself is very different from 90% of UK films I have seen lately, and actually 90% different from most films.
I knew nothing of the storyline going into the film (I like to preserve that element in most films I watch) I knew the title, and had seen the front cover and of course knew some of the cast list. Other than those small details, I went into this film cold and it benefited me totally. Whilst the film doesn't have any 'major plot twists' what Anti-Social does brilliantly is let the story unfold over its running time. You watch characters do what they do and the story unfolds without any feeling of 'Oh I can see where this is headed' . I loved that about Anti-Social. It wasn't confusing and yet I had no idea where the storyline was going to go, and where it did go was done to perfection.
So often films are packaged as 'for fans of
' in the hope they can be sold lazily to the viewer. Anti-Social is a serious gritty, adult natured thriller which if I had to do the awful thing if labelling it for an easy sell. Id perhaps say its part Kidulthood, Part Julian Gilbeys Plastic. But more openly I would just tell you that Anti-Social is not just a really engaging story with great performances.(Gregg Sulkin as Dee, and Andrew Shim as Jason, to name two) But Anti-Social is also a damn fine piece of filmmaking.