Inspired by Brit urban dramas such as Kidulthood, singer-songwriter Ben Drew developed this film after the 2011 summer riots in Britain as a response to David Cameron's Broken Britain.

Ill Manors is a chaotic film set in an area of inner London as we criss cross the lives of various drug dealers, street kids, crack addicted prostitutes, sex gangs with their imported sex slaves.

With a soundtrack consisting of urban rap and grime which gives the background of the characters and their little tales as well as ageing punk poet John Cooper Clarke popping up as a chorus.

There is the story of the street kid teen Jake who uses his friend's £20 to buy drugs and is ripped off and then has to beat up the friend he took the money from to get respect. After that initiation he beats up more people, gets to have sex, gains what he thinks is respect and is used to kill someone, betrayed and later winds up dead himself. As the accompanying song proclaims, he was only a kid.

The main part of the story is Aaron (Riz Ahmed) who is stuck working with childhood friend and drug dealer Ed (Ed Skrein) who both grew up in the same children homes. Both are hustlers, there is a sleazy sequence as Ed forces a crack addicted prostitute to have sex with a series of sleazy kebab shop owners in order to pay off her debts.

There is a redemption of sorts as Aaron finds a baby on a train as his mother is forced to flee a gang of sex traffickers, Ed sees this as an opportunity to sell the baby to a loving family, the alternative is growing up in a home like he did with no future. In a fire Ed rescues the baby and Aaron manages to reunite the baby with the mother.

The film is energetic, frightening, sordid and perversely has its own conservative streak. It is all about the men, their pride, fear and respect and women treated like chattel.

The movie is also derivative, a kind of movie I have seen before such as the ones written by actor-writer Noel Clarke and we end up seeing a newer stereotypical London, the one depicted in morose urban street dramas with tower blocks and gangs running around.

I wasn't looking forward to this at all. It looked like it was some pop star who had just fallen in the right place, and wanted to cash in on his fame.

But, I never really knew who 'Plan B' was really, apart from some dodgy pop songs.

How wrong I am though, and it a lot for me to admit i'm wrong. Ill Manors is easily one of the most disturbing 'urban' movies I have seen in a while. heavily influenced by the two Clarkes Noel and Alan, Drew has given us a film that oozes propaganda and pleas.

The film interlinks three stories, just Like Pulp Fiction, and the narrative is the fantastic haunting soundtrack.

Ahmed is as good as he always is, but is let down by some of the cast, who are just poor in their roles. These people stay in character all through the film, whereas in real life, is just a facade for the street.

The imagery is stark, especially in the baby rescue scene, and it really does deliver it's message, very bluntly.

On a 100k budget, Drew has made a very professional looking movie, and I look forward to seeing what he has to give us next.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

The directorial debut of hot new hip hop/acting star Ben Drew centres on a series of interwoven stories, of various different characters caught up in a grimy underworld centred around a South London housing estate, where guns, drugs and prostitution are the order of the day. The trouble is, none of these stories are linked together, and without a solid story line, the narrative flow is inevitably a bit messy.

I'd listened to the Ill Manors album before I saw the film, and was aware the tracks were basically the soundtrack to it, with each song provided to the different segments introducing each story. They on their own were undeniably raw and hard hitting, and demonstrated why Drew (in his Plan B mode) emerged as such a major hip hop talent. Somehow, rather than enhance it, they seem to have sucked in all the unflinching power of Drew's creative banks, and left a film that fails to generate any dramatic impact or tension, and feels like a damp squib compared to what was promised. I'd hazard a guess most of the cast were probably first time actors, or maybe even just real life council estate kids Drew knew who he just hired for authenticity, and it shows in their performances, a few of which are just really unconvincing and flat. Somehow, the whole thing ends up dragging on for nearly two hours, by which time self indulgence has just gone right out the window.

Drew has proved himself a really amateurish director, with an equally amateurish cast and crew, and produced a film that doesn't manage to cast a dramatic light on a really seedy and depressing section of society, however convinced it seems that it has. **