One teenage girl’s strain can look completely alien to another’s. Stress brought on by school, friends, romance or family can easily be shared or related to, but each individual hurdle still feels the size of the entire world to that one girl who has to go through it alone. “Rocks” understands this, existing as a brilliantly raw and compassionate coming-of-age picture that listens to the details and isn’t afraid to hit where it hurts.
Sarah Gavron’s latest film capitalizes on the director’s strength, proven with 2015’s “Suffragette,” to tell stories of steadfast women with unreserved courage. She works here with a fresh story by award-winning playwright Theresa Ikoko and Claire Wilson, who penned a love letter to the eclectic community of young women growing up in London. The ideas are then brought to life collaboratively with an energetic and fearless crop of young cast members – many of whom are acting for the very first time.
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The film unfolds around Olushola Joy Omotoso, known to her friends as Rocks. She’s a good friend, sister, daughter, and when she comes home one day to find her mother gone – having left no more than a bit of cash and an apology note – her strength is tested ever deeper.
There’s cause for panic and tragedy, but that’s not where “Rocks” feels the need to go in order to succeed. The challenge is tackled and embraced, as Rocks deals with her new responsibility by, well, just dealing with it – she takes her younger brother Emmanuel by the hand, makes sure he’s fed and in bed on time, and carries on. She doesn’t tell anyone about what’s happened.
“Rocks” is more interested in painting a truthful, colorful portrait of modern London girlhood than in scripting another melodrama. The stakes of Rocks’ struggles are taken seriously, but so are her friendships. The growing pains here are fragmented, making room for slicing quips and mumbled, overlapping chatter across an atmosphere that moves in moods instead of obvious artificial scripting. This allows for visceral characterization, from girls who strive on Snapchat and need to tell their teachers when stuff is ‘not that deep, sir’.
The unconventional collaborative vein gives “Rocks” a sense of organic chaos – one that can occasionally lose the sense of completely polished drama, but that still beams with sincerity. There’s something of Ken Loach here, in terms of the film’s understanding of precarity and the importance of its players – that is, if Ken Loach movies were a lot less male and white.
The alchemy between the young girls leading “Rocks” is a treat to watch, which feels at once inviting and somewhat educational. As Rocks, Bukky Bakray carries the weight of responsibility with resilience and sustained compassion, in a convincing turn that promises a bright career to come. Kosar Ali shines as Sumaya, as much in her own effervescent confidence as through the moments she is so clearly offering her entire heart to her best friend when she needs her.
But the standout performer is unquestionably D’angelo Osei Kissiedu as Emmanuel, Rocks’ sparky younger brother who has, and astonishingly delivers, an incredibly generous reserve of intelligent and perfectly timed comedic moments and comebacks. When Rocks realizes the reality of their financial situation? Emmanuel offers to do a charity run. When she says goodbye to the class pet a few seconds too late? She’s blown it, the moment has passed.
It’s in this that “Rocks” triumphs – these playful moments, the ones that sprout in quiet spaces and unassuming gaps. The film finds light in imperfect moments, without ever sugar-coating or excessively dramatizing. It happens as much on the screen as on the page, as Hélène Louvart’s tremendously optimistic and airy cinematography (as seen in previous ingenious coming-of-agers “Happy as Lazzaro” and “Beach Rats“) breathes curiosity and relief into trying times.
Whether Rocks finds a happy ending or not seems almost irrelevant, by the time she’s on a train to Hastings surrounded by her closest friends. There’s still no stereotypical Cool Aunt or Friendly Teacher, no adult to swoop in and teach these girls about life’s hard lessons and lead the way – and there never needs to be. At a school dance class early in the film, there is one teacher who joins in, but she doesn’t take over. Rocks and Sumaya show the others how it’s done, how to move in time with the noise, how to find the power to take control of your present. The beat is infectious, these girls’ stories a resounding celebration. [B+]