Shank

An insanely over-stylized ride, with overdone and at times almost tasteless alternating between slow-motion and sped-up shots + "comic book" or game inserts, which on the outside look awfully cool and extramodern, but in the end feel rather superficial and cheap. I'm not saying that the production is devoid of ideas (it certainly isn't), but the creators failed to find some reasonable line between an acceptable "more modern" concept and mindless self-indulgence. The raw and authentic atmosphere of Kidulthood or Adulthood (the poster was a very pathetic effort) is here completely replaced with a clip extravaganza in which the director outdoes himself in how his "teaser" will give us more visual paint... On the one hand, it's a pity, because if Shank has any social subtext or resonance, it's largely drowned out in the director's aforementioned ultra-stylized procedures. So why am I giving it 3 stars despite this rather negative assessment? It's certainly not a boring affair that makes you yawn – on the contrary, Shank, with its brisk pace, offers an experience that is completely freeing and solves nothing, which I'm even tempted to repeat in the near future, but that doesn't change the fact that the aforementioned Kidulthood and Adulthood (also British films with similar themes) are at least a class above. (08/11/2010)