Why you can trust 12DOVE
Part of a new breed of films recreating London’s paranoid pulse with twitchy editing, urgent soundtracks and ugly tales of youngsters gone awry, Nirpal Bhogal’s debut, like Shank, puts location ahead of story, so the city comes to life in ways the characters never do.
Kayla (first-timer Aimee Kelly) is the Geordie-out-of-water who joins damaged Danielle’s (Emma Hartley-Miller) vicious girl gang in a bid to avenge her elder sister’s murder.
“Revenge is messy,” the girls are warned. Sadly, it’s not the only thing in a film that, for all its grit and attitude, lacks sufficient cred.
Matt Glasby is a freelance film and TV journalist. You can find his work on Total Film - in print and online - as well as at publications like the Radio Times, Channel 4, DVD REview, Flicks, GQ, Hotdog, Little White Lies, and SFX, among others. He is also the author of several novels, including The Book of Horror: The Anatomy of Fear in Film and Britpop Cinema: From Trainspotting To This Is England.