Prostitutes, paedophiles, perverts... the world depicted in London To Brighton isn’t pretty. Each flashback brings us closer to the ugly truth, as 12 year-old runaway Joanne (Georgia Groome) and battered whore Kelly (Lorraine Stanley) flee the capital, pursued by a shotgun-toting pimp and a vicious gangster’s son.
There’s not an ounce of fat on the screenplay, which moves hard and fast without resorting to genre stereotypes or getting up on a social-realist soapbox. After so many Lock, Stock clones, this single-handedly reinvents the British crime movie — it’s an urban noir with
a heart of gold and balls of steel.
