David Farnor | On 21, Apr 2020

Director: Rapman
Cast: Stephen Odubola, Michael Ward, Karla-Simone Spence
Certificate: 15

If you haven’t heard of Andrew Onwubolu, you’ve almost certainly heard of Rapman, the name under which he made Shiro’s Story, a YouTube series that became an online sensation. Now, he’s moved from the small screen to the big with Blue Story, a story that tells a familiar story but with the same energy and creativity that made his web series so vividly gripping.

The film takes us to Lewisham, where two rival gangs have carved up part of South London: the Peckham Boys and, in Deptford, the Ghetto Boys. Timmy (Stephen Odubola) comes from Deptford but goes to school in Peckham, where he’s friends with local boy Marco (Top Boy’s breakout star Micheal Ward). But their friendship comes under strain when Timmy starts to date Leah (Karla-Simone Spence).

Odubola is brilliant as the bookish, do-gooder Timmy, a guy who’s set on the straight and narrow path out of a danger-strewn life – the life that has already swallowed the life of his older brother, who is in a gang war with Marco’s older brother. Timmy tries to blend in with the rest of his schoolmates, playing tough and talking rough, but it never sticks – his inability to join in the locker room banter in the opening scene is amusingly, painfully realised. When he and Spence finally cross paths, though, all that pretence disappears and their genuine chemistry makes for a winningly understated romance – while others face off in the streets, they curl up in their own bubble to watch Game of Thrones.

All of this, however, is cruelly just the sideshow to what ends up stealing Timmy’s narrative away from him: his immediately convincing bromance with Marco – the ever-excellent and sympathetically human Ward – inevitably turns sour, as the pair are sucked into the turf wars that are playing out around them. The spectacle of kids being corrupted by toxic grudges, posing masculinity and petty violence is nothing new, either in real life or on our screens, whether we’re talking John Singleton’s Boyz n the Hood of Noel Clarke’s Kidulthood.

But Rapman repeats his knack for not only casting a superb young ensemble but also bringing fresh immediacy to the tragedy on display; his musical narration, which jumps in every few scenes to keep us up to speed and heighten the emotions at play, are wittily written, earnestly performed and give the story its own unique tone. “I’m not trying to justify, I just want to show you what these young boys are fighting for,” he repeatedly states. The result lacks the ambitious storytelling of Shiro’s Story, which kept viewers hooked with endless twists and surprising turns, but Blue Story still packs a punch – a portrait of unnecessary lives lost that rings with firsthand experience and urgent conviction. You may have seen this story before, but you’ll be eager to see whatever story Rapman wants to tell next.

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