Brotherhood - Noel Clarke brings his 'Hood trilogy to a close

(Image credit: Rob Baker Ashton)

Writer, director and star, Noel Clarke gives new meaning to the phrase ‘triple threat’ as he brings his West London ’Hood trilogy to a belated close (following 2006’s Kidulthood and 2008’s Adulthood) with the morally muddled, cliché riddled, cack-handed urban crime melodrama Brotherhood (or BrOTHERHOOD, as the film's publicity prefers).

Poorly written and acted, the movie finds Clarke’s ex-con anti-hero Sam Peel drawn back into the world of gang violence after an attack on his younger brother. As his characters struggle to break free of the cycle of stabbings and shootings, Clarke clearly intends us to count the costs of gang life, but his film’s slow-motion shots of swaggering thugs make it seem as though he quite likes glamourising it, too.

Certificate 15. Runtime 100 mins. Director Noel Clarke

Brotherhood is available on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital Download from 26 December from Lionsgate UK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlbcqU0Qgr8

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.