Jamie Jones ambitious debut feature throbs with a fearsome energy and a strong undercurrent of class critique. Despite ostensibly taking place against the backdrop of the London riots of 2011, the film is very much of the contemporary moment, looking at the clash of class, identity and an increasingly paranoid State apparatus. This is class conflict writ large across the London cityscape.
Jones' has discovered an exciting new British acting talent in Marcus Rutherford, who plays Leon, a young mixed heritage estate kid, disciplined through boxing, but with little else to give his life any real structure or purpose. The director does well to make Leon the central character that we follow through the oppressive rioting violence of an inner city in the throes of rampant gentrification and social displacement. By following Leon around the clearly defined limits of his world, all constriction and constraint, it enables Jones and his production team to look at the riots from the perspective of both an active participant and an utterly disinterested passerby. It gives the film the absurdity of a scene in which Leon has a conversation with his case worker in the street as some overzealous police officers manhandle a 'suspect' to the ground, while also having the spectacle of the extras-heavy riot sequences toward the film's close. Frustration and disillusionment pours forth from the screen, but this is ably balanced by the humour of the bantering friends, as in the film's expertly shot opening street sequence.
Amidst the escalating chaos and carnage, which would feel almost sci-fi if we weren't currently under this Tory government, there are moments of searing beauty and integrity. I particularly loved Leon's sheer wonder at a peaceful space within the city when the privileged class tourist Twiggy (Sophie Kennedy Clark) takes him for a ride along the canal in her barge boat. Likewise, sitting with Twiggy and her boyfriend on top of one of London's many elevated heath's and commons, Leon feels a momentary respite from the sirens of the city below. What makes OBEY a smarter film than one might initially imagine, is the way in which it focuses upon the inability for almost any of the character's to truly escape their backgrounds and find their own space in the city. Class is the lock that we all must obey.
Jones' has discovered an exciting new British acting talent in Marcus Rutherford, who plays Leon, a young mixed heritage estate kid, disciplined through boxing, but with little else to give his life any real structure or purpose. The director does well to make Leon the central character that we follow through the oppressive rioting violence of an inner city in the throes of rampant gentrification and social displacement. By following Leon around the clearly defined limits of his world, all constriction and constraint, it enables Jones and his production team to look at the riots from the perspective of both an active participant and an utterly disinterested passerby. It gives the film the absurdity of a scene in which Leon has a conversation with his case worker in the street as some overzealous police officers manhandle a 'suspect' to the ground, while also having the spectacle of the extras-heavy riot sequences toward the film's close. Frustration and disillusionment pours forth from the screen, but this is ably balanced by the humour of the bantering friends, as in the film's expertly shot opening street sequence.
Amidst the escalating chaos and carnage, which would feel almost sci-fi if we weren't currently under this Tory government, there are moments of searing beauty and integrity. I particularly loved Leon's sheer wonder at a peaceful space within the city when the privileged class tourist Twiggy (Sophie Kennedy Clark) takes him for a ride along the canal in her barge boat. Likewise, sitting with Twiggy and her boyfriend on top of one of London's many elevated heath's and commons, Leon feels a momentary respite from the sirens of the city below. What makes OBEY a smarter film than one might initially imagine, is the way in which it focuses upon the inability for almost any of the character's to truly escape their backgrounds and find their own space in the city. Class is the lock that we all must obey.