‘Being a man is about dealing with stress…’
Drugs are fertile ground cinematically whether that be the celebration of hedonism (Trainspotting), or the hideous downfall (also Trainspotting), there are reels and reels of film dedicated to the effect of drugtaking. There are also many films that tackle the guys at the top of the drug game. The kingpins. Often overlooked however are the people at the bottom. Or in many tragic cases, the children at the bottom. County Lines is a stark, moving tableau of life as a drug smuggler across county lines. But does it work better as a film or as a cautionary tale? Both?
Failed by his mother (Ashley Madekwe) and misunderstood by his teachers, Tyler (Conrad Khan) finds a home in the world of drug dealers and heroin addicts, but what begins as a means to allow the industrious boy to feel part of something, soon unravels into a dangerous world of favours and retribution.
County Lines is writer/director Henry Blake’s debut feature and he brings an assured confidence to this low key, traumatic fable. Khan is great in the leading role, at once menacing and vulnerable, and Blake doesn’t shy away from the more insidious elements of the drug trade. In fact, he almost revels in it, with the whole middle section of the movie feeling almost attritional in its cruelty. The fact that what is presented on screen is probably quite tame compared to what is happening to teenagers across the world in real life is, of course, the real tragedy, and Blake acknowledges this during the film’s coda.
Blake has crafted a film that is difficult to sit through, and one that is rarely enjoyable in the traditional sense, but the subject matter is undoubtedly important. A grim, profound and salient movie.