Capturing a counterculture isn’t an easy feat. First of all, you have to really know the subject to see where to point, and what stories are worth exploring. You can’t just drop in the middle of something well-built with ground rules and expect to fully capture the dynamics that will serve as a backdrop to a story.
Trevor Miller’s Riot on Redchurch Street is not an easy film to digest firsthand. Early on, it becomes a bit clear that some time has passed since it was conceived, and we’re only getting to see a director’s cut of a story that time and culture shifts have butchered. However, I have to admit as well that I’m not anywhere close to the culture it’s trying to celebrate. You have to recognize that Miller is a bold storyteller who’s still trying to reach out and convince someone to look.
The world is East London. Where night and day transition but it’s all secondary to the constantly shifting music scene. The story is that of Ray, a music manager who faces the hardships of a bisexual love triangle, and the violence that seems to be part of the underground culture where he has to reside. Along with him are characters of many shades, but too underdeveloped to make any feel more important than others. The first advice would be less subtitles, less camera effects, and more character development.
Nevertheless, and as I have always done, I can’t fight auteurship. It’s hard not to celebrate an original storyteller when he seems so convinced that there’s something beyond the glitches, the bad lip-synching and questionable ADR. That something is the deconstruction of a culture that’s impossible to describe. Something so diverse that the film never confirms whether you’ll live or die once you enter the gates of a territory that’s erratic as well as fascinating. Hey, but at least there’ll be great music playing in the background.
I’m not in a position to say anything because I believe everyone has a story to tell, but Miller could also turn the page and provide us with a follow-up that expands on what actually happened after the events in the movie. It felt a bit rushed to end the film that way, but at least, the good guys won. Or should we stick to the idea that in Redchurch St. nobody is a good guy?
Film critic. Lover of all things horror. Member of the OFCS. RT Approved Critic.
