It's clear from the outset that SUS is the filmed version of a play; it's set in a single location, with three actors, and contains some very theatrical mannerisms. I'm sure that seeing it in person would have been a great success, but as a film it feels like something of a failure. It's totally non-cinematic, it feels overlong and it's one of those films where not much really happens.
It's also a film that hits you over the head with a political agenda from the outset, which is something I'm not too keen on. This time around they're pushing a liberal mindset, with the cops depicted as racist pigs and the blacks subjected to irrational hatred and violence, but it all feels a bit obvious. It's the sort of thing that you'd expect to take up ten minutes of screen time in a film detailing other stuff, but instead it's stretched out to feature length.
There's no faulting the acting, particularly from Ralph Brown as the elder of the two cops, although it does feel like Rafe Spall is showing off a bit, desperate to get the camera to take notice of him. Trying to come out from his father's shadow perhaps? Clint Dyer is fine, of course, in a difficult part. But this is hardly enjoyable and it hardly adds anything new that we don't already know about racism in the UK.
It's also a film that hits you over the head with a political agenda from the outset, which is something I'm not too keen on. This time around they're pushing a liberal mindset, with the cops depicted as racist pigs and the blacks subjected to irrational hatred and violence, but it all feels a bit obvious. It's the sort of thing that you'd expect to take up ten minutes of screen time in a film detailing other stuff, but instead it's stretched out to feature length.
There's no faulting the acting, particularly from Ralph Brown as the elder of the two cops, although it does feel like Rafe Spall is showing off a bit, desperate to get the camera to take notice of him. Trying to come out from his father's shadow perhaps? Clint Dyer is fine, of course, in a difficult part. But this is hardly enjoyable and it hardly adds anything new that we don't already know about racism in the UK.