Search results
youtube.com
- When “Yardie” tries to weave the concepts of Jamaican superstition and beliefs into these standard tropes, the result is intriguing yet ultimately unsatisfying because it feels half-formed. The film never fully embraces the notion that faith can influence someone in irreversibly damaging ways, making the ending less powerful than it intends to be.
www.rogerebert.com › reviews › yardie-2019
Mar 15, 2019 · “Yardie” tells the story of a Jamaican immigrant in London who becomes consumed with avenging the murder of his older brother. The title refers to the slang term for a Caribbean expatriate, usually of Jamaican origin.
Yardie proves debuting director Idris Elba has a distinctive eye that benefits from a strong personal connection to his material, even if the end results are somewhat uneven. Read Critics...
- (77)
- Aml Ameen
- Idris Elba
- Warp Films
Mar 14, 2019 · Straddling the intersection of drug dealing and the music industry, “Yardie,” the big-screen directing debut of the actor Idris Elba, struggles to carve a path between warring gangs and reggae ...
- Idris Elba
Mar 14, 2019 · 'Yardie' finds Idris Elba stepping behind the camera to adapt a cult U.K. crime novel — and comes out firing blanks. Our review.
- Idris Elba's directorial debut is a rich and stylish "DJ Noir," but the soundtrack is better than the story.
- Verdict
By William Bibbiani
Posted: Mar 14, 2019 6:45 pm
Idris Elba is a man of many talents. He’s an actor, he’s a producer, he’s a DJ, and with his new film Yardie he is now officially a director - and a very good one - of a film about DJs. So he’s rather excellent at staying on brand.
Yardie takes place in the 1970s, where a Jamaican criminal named “D” (Aml Ameen, Sense8) gets sent to London to deliver a large package of cocaine. Six years ago, D’s brother Jerry Dread (Everaldo Creary) tried to unite the warring gangs of Jamaica with a DJ set to end all DJ sets, and it might have worked if he hadn’t been assassinated in the middle of the party. Now D is angry, haunted, and determined to exact revenge on the shooter, even if it jeopardizes the criminal enterprise of his own boss, King Fox (Sheldon Shepherd).
So King Fox sends D away, and it doesn’t take him long to get into even more trouble, enraging Fox’s international dealers and veering off, once again, on his own mission of vengeance. All the while he wrestles with the possibility of giving up on crime and walking the righteous path with his wife, Yvonne (Shantol Jackson), and of course the absolute necessity to preserve his brother’s impressive vinyl collection and - whenever possible - crank out the jams for the masses.
It would be wonderful to report that Yardie eschews the typical crime movie conventions and breaks into wholly new territory, but perhaps that was too much to ask. D’s journey hits beats that will be familiar to fans of the genre as he tries to find new buyers for his cocaine and struggles to save his family from his threatening enemies and debates giving up the business before - wouldn’t you know it? - something drags him back in again. It’s perfectly functional storytelling, but undeniably and distractingly evocative of many crime and noir sagas of yore.
Idris Elba’s directorial debut is an atmospheric and catchy “DJ Noir” about criminals who’d rather spin vinyl than sell cocaine, and it’s an impressive first film, only held back by the conventions in the plot. But it’s the details of Yardie’s world that make it worth visiting. It’s a richly realized underworld full of music aficionados whose hobbi...
- William Bibbiani
Jan 20, 2018 · 'Yardie': Review. By Fionnuala Halligan, Chief Film Critic 20 January 2018. Idris Elba makes his dynamic directorial debut with this involving drama set in 1970s Jamaica and 1980s London....
Mar 14, 2019 · Yardie is a sprawling drug-world saga, but whatever narrative flaws it has are helped out by an infectious selection of dub-heavy reggae tracks and an authentically gritty sense of period and...
