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United Kingdom · 2016
1h 41m
Director Helen Walsh
Starring Lauren McQueen, Brogan Ellis, Roxanne Pallett, Stephen Lord
Genre Drama
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When Shelly meets Rachel, two dysfunctional girls from radically opposed backgrounds set off on a collision course that will leave one of them shattered and the other re-born. Set in the abandoned wastelands of Cheshire's little-seen urban overspill, The Violators charts a teenage girl's path from battle-hardened cynicism to the hope of a better life.
This study of adolescent desire and alienation across class lines takes its time nurturing a tensely ambiguous relationship between its two young female leads — alertly played by newcomers Lauren McQueen and Brogan Ellis — only to squander a measure of that intrigue on a blunt third-act twist.
The Violators suffers from inevitable comparisons to Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, but is anchored by McQueen’s terrific performance in her feature debut.
It’s the directorial debut of novelist Helen Walsh and details as small as the actresses’ eyebrows reveal huge amounts about their characters. It’s also cleverly shot.
The Violators bravely paints a vicious circle without pulling any punches and shows real promise in a new female British filmmaker.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
It’s flawed by a slightly unconvincing and anticlimactic gun-related ending, but well acted, forthright and confident in the universe it creates.