Honeytrap | Film review - Jessica Sula beguiles in tragic urban drama

Naïve 15-year-old Layla (Jessica Sula) arrives in Brixton to live with her estranged mother (Naomi Ryan) after 10 years staying with her grandparents in Trinidad in Honeytrap. Initially shy and ill at ease in her new surroundings, she nevertheless soon attracts two very different suitors, swaggering wannabe rapper Troy (Lucien Laviscount) and sensitive Shaun (Ntonga Mwanza). But her desperation to fit in leads to tragedy.

Inspired by the 2008 case of so-called ‘honeytrap killer’ Samantha Joseph, British writer-director Rebecca Johnson gives a fresh, female perspective on urban gang crime with this debut feature and gets a beguiling lead performance from Skins’ actress Sula.

Certificate 18. Runtime 93 mins. Director Rebecca Johnson

Honeytrap is showing on Sky Cinema Premiere from Tuesday 30 August and is available on DVD from Platform Entertainment.

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

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.