My Brother the Devil (2012)

Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Absolutely Fantastic

A Brilliant Conflict

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

i seen a review about how bad it was after watching it but stop talking poop mate you think this film is racist but nope you're wrong! i actually thought it was going to be another stupid English film in a block of flats but no this one actually had a story to it.not to give anything away but give it a watch i enjoyed it.

The show my brother the devil plays on many stereotypes from Muslim stereo types to gay and lesbian stereotypes. This is because Rash turns out to be gay in a Muslim household and his brother finds out however his mum and dad do not know. This relates to life in the streets of the streets of south east London as if a so called gangster was to be called gay he may be picked on or made fun of. Also in the religion of Islam it is haram to be gay therefore if Rash would have told his parents they may have kicked him out of looked down upon him. The film touches on very controversial topics such as a gangster which is gay as this may be the first time such a character has been shown or depicted in a film.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday MorningRashid (James Floyd) is caught up with street gangs in inner city London, and runs in to a feud with another rival gang when his younger brother Mo (Fady Elsayed) is robbed by them while running an errand for Rashid's crew. But when his best friend is killed in a retaliation attack instigated by Rashid, he is forced to try and come to terms with his life and turn it around, while facing up to his own inner demons. Meanwhile, young Mo is forced to face some harsh rites of passage choices of his own.Just when it seemed like it had been a while, Sally El Hosani comes along with a new gritty British urban drama to shake the genre back up a bit. Little seen but critically hailed, it's lesser budget not holding it back at all, My Brother the Devil is an undeniably impressive but overlong and maybe even slightly over rated offering that is maybe guilty of over ambition in it's scope.Basing it's story at the centre of a bustling immigrant community in the sprawling metropolis of London, the film lifts the rafters on what has probably become a pretty typical, archetypal landscape setting for many parts of the capital, or even the country as a whole. It opens a rough, unpredictable world with danger at every corner and the price of life disturbingly cheap. In this it manages what many other films of it's type have already done, and in an above average way, but it loses it's way in a sea of complex, challenging sub plots that seem to be aiming for higher gasp factor as it goes on. Somehow, the central narrative loses it's structure a bit, while the performances and writing remain spot on. Still, if all the cogs in the engine aren't working, someone'll notice.This is an undeniably ambitious, well acted, daring, effectively shot, depressingly realistic and smartly written piece that doesn't deserve to have all those qualities ignored, but maybe got a little too above it's station and fell down from a spellbinding height. ***

A couple of the reviews in NYC said something about iffy or inexperienced acting from the younger brother played by Fady Elsayed, so I was paying particular attention to his acting. Of course in film, as big brother and experienced actor James Floyd is quoted on IMDb, the director and editor can make or break an actor's performance. So maybe Fady sucked 95% of the time, who knows, but what is in the film was just fine by me.As someone else pointed out here, the younger brother's turnaround at the end of film isn't really explained. But there had to be some passage of time since what had happened to him previously, and I guess we're probably supposed to figure he did a lot of reevaluating and growing up as a result of what he went through. Why there weren't some clues about his thinking and what if anything else influenced him would be a good question for the director and screenwriter and editor though. I suspect there was a scene or two filmed that they decided didn't work or was too obvious or something.Another commenter here with some real life exposure to this sort of culture thought the low life stuff is a lot worse in real life. Well, it is a fictional film. I've been around the block myself and the drug dealer crack house and its denizens seemed close enough to me.