A Moving Image

Director Shola Amoo does a brilliant job of getting under the skin of gentrification.

The simple title, loaded with meaning, should not disguise just how much is packed into this profound and articulate debut feature from a very promising London-based filmmaker.

Although the film's approach to issues is a little on the nose at times, in Amoo, we are introduced to a distinctive and bold new voice in British cinema.

Writer and director Shola Amoo is almost certainly headed for great things.

Amoo boldly attempts to explore the social, economic and political aspects of gentrification with this freewheeling docudrama.

Romantic travails and professional dreams feel trite in a sincere affair that feels fatally undercooked.

This impassioned docudrama makes the unfortunate mistake of confusing artistic ambition with intellectual incoherence.

Fittingly, the film is itself a grand collage, drama spliced with documentary, music and dance.

The movie shrewdly lays out how a district's bohemian and diverse character is what makes it vulnerable to long-term predatory investment, pushing Brixton in the direction of white Notting Hill.

The complexity of the topic is well handled, and Brixton itself is full of vibrancy, but the film prompts more questions than it manages to answer.

A small film with big ambitions and an even bigger heart, A Moving Image has a message that goes beyond its limited scope.

The fictional parts of the film are underdeveloped with ideas that go nowhere. It's the nonfictional parts, however, that will see audiences pay attention, and understand to the plight gentrification has on working class residents.