✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Cinema

Brotherhood film review ★★★★★

02 Sep 16 – 02 Nov 16, Times vary

Noel Clarke rounds off his London trilogy with this compelling-if-clunky drama

By CW Contributor on 23/8/2016

The cast of Brotherhood
The cast of Brotherhood
Brotherhood film review 3 Brotherhood film review Matthew Robinson
2006’s Kidulthood, a gritty depiction of 48 hours in the lives of three inner-city London adolescents, was an intoxicating and unapologetic mix of sex, drugs and violence. 2008’s Adulthood followed in the same vein, telling the story of Sam Peel (Noel Clarke) as he battled demons, both physical and mental, from his past.


Now 10 years after it all began, Clarke returns to writer/director duties for Brotherhood. We find Peel a mellowed man, holding down four menial jobs to support his young family, comparing his body unfavourably to other men in the gym and, crucially, trying to stay out of trouble. Of course, it’s not long before trouble finds him.




The bad boy turned good dragged back in to the game is fairly well trodden turf in the gangster genre and Brotherhood fails to break much new ground – though Clarke brings his finely tuned ear for London’s very particular idiomatic dialect to an occasionally laugh-out-loud but frequently clunky script.


The occasional plot contrivance can be forgiven if the drama’s sufficiently compelling, but an over-reliance on the ‘nick-of-time’ trope too often stretches the bounds of credulity at the expense of dramatic tension. Clarke is a decent actor, but he consistently out acts his own film amidst a cast of hit and miss performances.


The film’s weakest moments take place in the grotesquely tasteless mansion of the main antagonist. Here, mute pneumatic women seem to spend their whole lives draped over the furniture in unconvincing statuesque poses and slimy gangsters speak with a sub-Guy Ritchie patter.


Nevertheless, moments of directorial flair, punchy one-liners and some fairly snappy editing help the whole thing zip along at an entertaining pace and it brings to a close a series that has achieved a rare thing in British cinema: a financially successful, independent trilogy.


A film that knows its audience, Brotherhood will please fans of the series with its familiar blend of genre ingredients, that, while not as fresh and exciting as its predecessors, is still thoroughly watchable fare.

by Henry Williams

What Brotherhood film review
Where Various Locations | MAP
Nearest tube Leicester Square (underground)
When 02 Sep 16 – 02 Nov 16, Times vary
Price £determined by cinema
Website Click here for more details



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 12 - 14 August
Things to do in London this weekend: 12 - 14 August
London's loveliest indoor swimming pools
London swimming pools you can visit without membership
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London (Photograph: Peter Lewicki)
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London, 2022

Editor's Picks


  • 1. BEST FILMS STILL TO COME THIS YEAR

    2016 isn't done dishing out cinema magic

    2. BRADY CORBET INTERVIEW

    We talk to the director of The Childhood of a Leader

    3. ROLE-REVERSAL

    Movies we'd like to see gender-flipped

Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

You might like

  • The Childhood of a Leader film review [STAR:4]

    The Childhood of a Leader film review ★★★★★

  • The Hard Stop film review [STAR:4]

    The Hard Stop film review ★★★★★

  • Pastor 'Crocodile', in the documentary Almost Holy

    Almost Holy film review ★★★★★

  • Marion Cotillard and Brad Pitt, Allied film 2016, Robert Zemeckis

    Allied film review ★★★★★



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×