The Long Goodbye (2020)

By CinemaSerf

A family and their friends are messing around at home when they are set upon by a gang of shotgun toting white racist thugs who have violently descended on their street. What ensues is truly abhorrent and would appear to happen with a degree of police complicity before quite a clever and intensely delivered piece of poetry from actor Riz Ahmed questioning who is who in the UK in 2020, and what is important in our double-standards ridden nation. The photography really effectively takes us to the heart of this scenario, almost as if we were there too, witnessing the atrocity. I do not believe this is a realistic reflection of something that could actually happen in Britain, nor do I believe that there are police officers who would permit this kind of brutal kerbside execution, but sometimes cinema needs extremes to provoke debate and responses - this is certainly food for thought.