It is hard to believe they made this film for £100k. I wasn't expecting it to be great, but it was far better than I expected. I liked the two main characters Shifty and Chris and the whole ensemble were very good.Riz Ahmed and Daniel Mays are both very good actors, I had seen a fine performance by Daniel Mays in Mike Leigh's 'All or Nothing' but it was the first time I had seen Riz. Although they aren't really well known outside TV and smaller budget stuff, both these actors are going to be big names in the future. I have great regard for all the actors who appear in Mike Leigh films and Daniel Mays will be up there with Tim Spall, Jim Broadbent, Stephen Rea, Phil Davis to name a few. It is a fairly simple story of a drug dealer who runs into big trouble, it is a good portrait of the seedy world of drugs and the horrors they bring. Although very different, I would recommend this film to anyone who liked 'Sexy Beast' 'Dead Man's Shoes'.They did a brilliant job with £100k.

Yes, a good film, and for one made for a £100 grand a hell of an achievement. The performances were good to excellent (the Trevor character in particular was particularly convincing). I like the fact the film makers had not resorted to simplistic visuals to get the message across. For example the estate where they lived looked pretty nice and yet even with the sunshine you still felt this story was right there.My only reservations are I didn't consider the banter was as convincing as everybody seems to think it was. But mainly it was the subject matter. Guns, gangsters, drugs, family conflict here we go again. Apparently, the original script focused on the dealer and his customers and that would have suited me more. But if you get the chance to see it - well worth a look.

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.

I've noticed this growing trend with a lot of British gangster and drama films that claim to be 'gritty and realistic' but are no where near it.Shifty suffers from the same flaws. I'm sorry, but even the lower class of British society doesn't say 'yeh bruv' or 'mug' etc every other sentence, its so stereotypical and bloody over done.It seems also, that Daniel Mays is a one dimensional 'actor', but really, he can't act to save his life. He has one of the most irritating faces to look at and permanently looks retarded. To me, he sounds EXACTLY like Danny Dyer, another bloke who thinks he can act. How he got a part in anything to do with Mike Leigh is beyond me.Riz Ahmed however seems like a very capable actor but was given a completely $hit script to work with.The whole film is just so uninteresting. I thought there would be some action and meaning to the story, but at end its like the viewer is supposed to clap their hands at Shifty's clever little stints he did to get out of his spot of bother.Also, if he made 3 grand a week being a drug dealer, would he really be living in that $hitty flat/house with his older, old fashioned brother? I doubt it.Another disappointing, clichéd British film.