Best movie of this year hands down!

Simply Perfect

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Shifty (Riz Ahmed) is a low level drug dealer living under his older brother. His former best friend Chris (Daniel Mays) returns into his life. As Shifty struggles against a competitor in the drug world, Chris follows him around. They reconnect and confront their past.This is a character driven indie that excels more on the character work. While I do recognize Daniel Mays, this is all about watching Riz Ahmed before his recent breakout performances. He has a great quiet intensity that surprises. When he confronts the young couple for their loud music, he has such a cold steadiness that he becomes mesmerizing. The plot isn't much and this isn't anything exceptional other some pretty compelling performances.

There are lots of things that made this film 'good' in my estimation, most of those things have been discussed by other reviewers already. For example: strong performances, some lovely cinematography etc. But the 'thing' that really struck me about this film was the brave attempt to depict drug dealing and drug use in an unglamorous context. English crime / gangster films had moved into a comic book realm in the late 90s early 00s - courtesy of Guy Richie's thoroughly entertaining 'Lock Stock....' - I have no problems with that little genre. However - this was always a white middle class guy's romantic comic book version of drug deals and guns. This is not a criticism, as I say, the films he makes are good fun and entertaining. They are what they are. So it is all the more wonderful to see a film like this one. The Respectable working class milieu, not everyone lives in a decrepit London (or Manchester or Liverpool) decaying block of flats with graffiti and p**s stains on the wall for example. The 's**t - shire' - nothing place. Not quite street cred enough to be 'cool' - the camera pans over rows of little houses with bins out the front, small gardens, indistinct small scale warehouses, the underpass, the quiet suburban streets. This is not London, this is not the country, this is the nowhere's ville where a larger percentage of 'us' actually come from than we care to admit at times. The kitchen sink averageness of the cocaine addicted building site worker, the quietly observed sadness of the crack smoking old lady in her familiar looking flat, framed photograph of a daughter, grand daughter on the mantle. It is the quietness of this film that really got to me, which made the final scenes all the more horrific and powerful. It made me think of a Billy Bragg lyric 'Don't go reminding me again of how brittle bone is.' No rock n rollers, no sharply dressed fellas on the make. Just people, who look like people at the local shopping centre you walk past everyday. While it is not perfect, I eagerly await the director's next film. Hats off to all the actors involved as well - not a weak link anywhere. Mr. Mays: you were sensational! If you want to see a film that is not a post modern comic book version of life (and again, these films have their appeal for me at times) give this one a go.

Shifty is a young drug dealer living with his older brother and earning a couple of grand a week. When an old friend comes to stay with him and asks him to come back up to Manchester to a safer, cleaner life, it marks the start of a rough day for Shifty, as his normal drop-offs are complicated by one customer who goes off the rails, and a rumour that has made it back to Shifty's supplier that he is cutting the product and selling for himself on the side.Made for as little as £100k (which would not even buy you a one-second Megan Fox pout) this film is to be admired for how good it looks considering the constraints of the budget. However if praise was given out to independent films made for no money then there would not be enough to go around as there are plenty of similar attempts – just many of them really do show the lack of resource in all areas. It is not the case with Shifty because the film is an effective and well made affair that engages by virtue of how it is put together. The story is reasonably straightforward but it is written with a wider story behind it – one that we perhaps don't get all of but one that impacts onto the characters and their relationships and makes for a stronger character set and a more interesting film. I was interested in both Shifty and Chris as people as well as the grubby little world they inhabit.On top of this the day in question also has some violent risks for Shifty and these add a semi-thriller touch to the story. Again, this isn't totally fleshed out all for the viewer to see but it works as it goes. It isn't perfect as a story but it does well to juggle a couple of different characters to add to the flow of the narrative while also avoiding being judgemental about any of them – your conclusion may be "drugs are bad m'kay" but the film does not seem to have that as an agenda but is just focused on telling the story.The cast deserve credit for working on such a low budget film; OK they are not Hollywood stars used to commanding millions but there are several faces that will be recognisable from big films. The star of the film is Riz Ahmed, who does well for once not playing someone associated with 9/11 films. He is a likable character but he also conveys that edge of toughness and threat that he needs. He does good work with his face and eyes to ensure the viewer can sort of appreciate his thoughts without them being rammed down your throat. Mays has less of a showy role but he does the same – hits the character well and makes him convincing from the start and throughout, only weakening a little bit towards the end when I expected him to convey the impact of events a little better. Flemyng is a solid presence and a good face to help the film, while Simpson's Trevor is a tragic figure and he plays it well, making him a real person rather than a simple plot device to be either pitied or hated.Shifty is not a brilliant film to be sure, it is far to slight for that but it is a particularly good one. It isn't social realism but it has an authenticity to it that helps make it work, with the well written and performed characters providing a strong base for the narrative to be built on. If it had cost ten times as much to make I still would have liked it but that it was made for so little is an impressive thing of note.

Just like a tyro musician who can impress with a few cool-sounding licks, young director Eran Creevey flatters to deceive in "Shifty".The neat tricks are there,the veneer of newly-learned techniques rapidly absorbed,but beneath the facade of cinematic urban grit there isn't actually much depth.The movie is yet another look at the drug underclass,all of whom,apparently,are living lives of rather noisy but cinematic desperation. Set in some hellhole (but grittily photogenic)outpost of the East London/Essex border country,it features a Muslim drug dealer as he goes about his daily business and his old schoolfriend who is trying to persuade his pal to mend his ways.They meet all kinds of strange(but grittily photogenic) characters.Er,that's about it,really. Although decidedly 21st century in content and context,"Shifty" can be traced back to "Cathy come home" from the 1960s and even earlier attempts to depict the hopelessness and misery (albeit grittily photogenic)of the lives of many inhabitants of this fair isle. Indeed it would appear that life for some is worse now than it was then but at least we've got guys like Shifty to ease our burden.Back then we left the pram outside the "Dog and Duck",drank ourselves senseless then staggered home to beat the hell out of the wife.Now,thanks to our friendly local pusher,we need never leave the privacy of our homes.Thank God for progress. It is remarkable that "Shifty" was made for £100,000.I congratulate all concerned most sincerely on their achievement.I hope Eran Creevey doesn't disappear down the black hole marked "MTV videos",I really do. However,having said all that,I would be less than honest to be praising it unreservedly.It is what it is - a promising movie debut,no more,no less.