VS review: Fascinating rap battle film from first-time filmmaker

British director Ed Lilly’s rites of passage story has energy and emotion

Small town boy: Connor Swindells as Adam in ‘VS’ (BBC Films)

Dir: Ed Lilly; Starring: Connor Swindells, Ruth Sheen, Nicholas Pinnock, Fola Evans-Akingbola, Emily Taaffe, Joivan Wade, Kola Bokinni. Cert 15, 97 mins

Troubled young adult Adam (Connor Swindells) finds redemption through competitive rapping in British director Ed Lilly’s impressive debut feature, VS. Like its lead character, the film is tough on the outside, but eventually reveals a soft and emotional centre.

As a kid, Adam was abandoned by his mum. He has grown up in foster homes and has an angry grudge against the world. In and out of trouble, he is now living in Southend and his life appears to be going nowhere. He doesn’t have a job. He is consumed with self-pity. If he messes up again, he risks being locked away in a secure residential unit.

Adam, though, is very clever with words. His quick thinking and flair for aggressive phrase making are recognised by Makayla (Fola Evans-Akingbola), a woman he tries to chat up in the local amusement arcade where she works. Makayla also has another life as one of the promoters of the town’s thriving, underground competitive rapping scene. Adam is drawn into this world, competing in “Project Battle” as “Adversary.”

The rap battles are fascinating. The two antagonists stand face to face as if they are boxers or UFC fighters, but then attack each other with words. They’re vicious in the way they ridicule and taunt one another, mocking everything from their opponents’ families to their sexuality – and the verbal sparring often risks degenerating into physical brawling.

As in any decent rite of passage story, the vulnerable young hero learns painful lessons about the duplicity of the adult world. He encounters his mother, who works as a hairdresser in the town. He looks to begin a romance with Makayla. Adam thinks he knows everything but he keeps on being wrong footed by revelations about his family and new friends

Swindells plays the angry young rapper in an appealing fashion, capturing both his hostility and resentment and his very obvious vulnerability. Director Lilly combines gritty, Mean Streets-style scenes of Adam hanging tough with episodes of family melodrama. In the latter stages, the film becomes increasingly sentimental, and even risks turning into a full blown tearjerker, but it never feels trite or manipulative.