Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Larry Silverstein This is a brutally stark and powerful dark drama, which I would say is impeccably written and directed by Clio Barnard, and the cast gives such realistic performances you won't even know they're acting.The two leads here are terrific. Connor Chapman stars as Arbor, an extremely hyperactive 13-year-old, who often does not take his medication, and has enormous problems with authority figures. Shaun Thomas co-stars as Swifty, who is polar opposite to Arbor in personality being soft-spoken, kind-hearted, and has an affinity for horses. Yet there's no question the two boys have an inseparable bond.Set in England, facing dire poverty at home and bullies at school, they are emboldened when they're able to receive cash from the local unscrupulous scrap metal dealer for some stolen wiring. Sean Gilder is perfectly cast as the shady dealer named Kitten. Arbor and Swifty proceed to go out and try and collect any metal they can find in the neighborhood or steal whatever they can get away with.They begin to take more and more risks to obtain the goods to sell, and Arbor even begins to "bite the hand that feeds him", as he steals from Kitten and tries to sell the merchandise at an out of town dealer. However, he's exposed and after being physically threatened by Kitten ends up being sent on a dangerous assignment to try and steal some underground cable worth thousands of dollars, but which could be still electrified.When Swifty joins him there you can see tragedy could be just around the corner, and the movie doesn't disappoint in that regard.This a difficult film to watch, and normally may have been too grim for me, but I was glad I stayed with it, and the power of it stayed with me well after it was over. I might mention in closing that if you have any sensitivities to raw language, pretty much every other word here is a swear word. I felt it belonged though in the context of the realism of the film.

runamokprods While not audacious and brave in it's style as Barnard's smashing debut "The Arbor", it explores much of the same territory – poverty in northern England. But this time Barnard uses a more neo-realist bent that recalls the films of Ken Loach, among others. And after two viewings, while I missed the wild rule-breaking she did in her first film, I felt she had made a film of gritty honest and emotional force. The story centers on two young teens (very well played by non-pros). Diminutive Arbor is hyperactive, angry, and so on the edge he can be frightening and simultaneously heartbreaking -- Arbor needs meds just to allow him to be calm enough to function. And there's Swifty, his best friend who is introvert to Arbor's extreme extrovert. Swifty is willing to go along with Arbor's schemes to a point, but he also wants to honor his mother's wish that he get an education, and try to move up and out of poverty. The two begin collecting (and sometimes stealing) scrap metal to sell to a tough local junk metal dealer, Kitten. This is a man who is capable of being almost a father figure one moment, and stomping you into the ground the next. A sort of modern Fagan, using the boys to do his bidding (although, to be fair, the boys come to him). A dark, moody and ultimately deeply disturbing film, that refuses to let us or society off lightly when it comes to kids growing up in the cycle of poverty.

Raven-1969 If being hopelessly poor, having the police constantly at the door, being expelled from school, or experiencing other troubles, weigh on the life of little Arbor, he does not show it. Despite extremely limited resources, Arbor is relentless in his quest to rise above his mean surroundings. In a fable that seems to belong to another era or place, Arbor scrounges for scrap metal and competes with unscrupulous adults for limited and often illicit resources. Arbor is charming and surprisingly capable of navigating in this adult underworld, yet when he pulls his more sensitive friend down with him, things may unravel beyond control. Successful in their debut at Cannes, Director Barnard and her scrappy crew provide a moving and stark portrait of society adept at stripping people of emotion and connection to others, animals, and the larger world. Turn the language captioning on, for even though the film is in English, it is not an English that Americans readily understand.

olastensson13 Repport from Cameron Britain. Or Blair Britain for that matter. Zones with unemployment, drugs and petty-thefts as the only pride. No opportunity to be really good or really evil. It's hopeless.These two lads steals scrap-metal and sells it. Their loyalty towards each other turns olympic, but in a realistic way. But there are other powers which through ignorance destroys that. And without anybody knowing what happened, real evil is there, unexpectedly.People beyond working-class, because there is no working-class anymore. Tremendous acting, since it's a British film. Feel-bad-movie of the year and quite brilliant.