thu 28/03/2024

DVD: NEDS | reviews, news & interviews

DVD: NEDS

DVD: NEDS

Peter Mullan's firebrand of a film sees a bright spark turn delinquent

'School of hard knocks': Gregg Forrest in 'NEDS'

Peter Mullan’s incendiary and long-overdue third feature is an unflinching, often hilarious look at a teenager’s inexorable descent into delinquency. NEDS (or Non-Educated Delinquents) begins in Glasgow in 1972, immersed in a rosy haze of promise as the chubby-cheeked, saucer-eyed John McGill graduates from primary school. Moments later he’s being threatened with a beating to end all beatings by a malevolent peer.

Peter Mullan’s incendiary and long-overdue third feature is an unflinching, often hilarious look at a teenager’s inexorable descent into delinquency. NEDS (or Non-Educated Delinquents) begins in Glasgow in 1972, immersed in a rosy haze of promise as the chubby-cheeked, saucer-eyed John McGill graduates from primary school. Moments later he’s being threatened with a beating to end all beatings by a malevolent peer.

Conor McCarron is astonishing as the taciturn teen, simmering with dark potential, empowered by violence, consumed by fate

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