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Young Dutch filmmaker Sam de Jong's debut film Prince has all the stereotypical elements that make up a so-called gangsta movie: guns, drugs, babes, bling-blings and expensive sports mobiles. But underneath all its macho posturing, inner-city working class clichés and flashy aesthetics, an unexpected sweetness is revealed as the film unfolds.Our teenage half-breed protagonist Ayoub (Ayoub Elasri) hangs out with his buddies and spending time blowing up mail boxes with firecrackers in their Amsterdam housing projects neighborhood. Ayoub dreams of hitting big and hooking up with Laura (Sigrid ten Napel), a blonde neighborhood girl who is currently seeing Ronnie, a head of the gang of older, lowly criminal boys who taunt and bully around Ayoub and his friends. "Our day will come," Ayoub ominously tells...

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It Takes a Muscle: De Jong’s Debut a Vibrant Entry in Familiar Genre

So perhaps there is a room for a bit of inventiveness in the continual exploration of the bildungsroman, at least evidenced by Dutch director Sam de Jong’s directorial debut Prince. Heavily stylized with flourishes of impressive editing and an energetic soundtrack fluctuating between hypnotic electro beats, crooning vintage tracks, and a synthesized menace promising more detrimental events than the film actually delivers, this exploration of life in Amsterdam’s low income housing projects recalls the influences of works by Refn and Antonio Campos, at least as far its power for brooding male leads struggling through an increasingly apathetic universe. Ultimately, de Jong proves to be less interested in the provocations his tone would otherwise indicate, surprisingly crafting a sweet natured portrait of conflicted adolescence.

17 year old Ayoub (Ayoub Elasri) lives with his lonely single Dutch...