Pretty Good

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

As a true story it's never going to feel like a Hollywood blockbuster, but compared to something like The Krays I think it stacks up superbly. This film feels real and as a side point the story should be respected, racism was rife in football at that time so the 'achievement' of Cass is even more remarkable.I guess I'm a bit biased as I've met the man, met his wife and met his son (who had an extra role in Green Street). Summary is this; a good film on a really interesting life and even though the narrative is grim, enough in the film to entertain, definitely recommend.

With The Football Factory still reverberating in the memory, it's difficult to get as excited about a film like Cass as one would like; a piece living in the still-recent shadow of such a film whilst calling on direct influence from the likes of 2005's Green Street as well as bits and pieces of an older crime film, albeit disconnected from hooliganism, in the form of De Palma's Carlito's Way. Indeed, Cass' director is a certain Jon Baird; a man who worked on Green Street as an associate producer - his film here formulating into a similar tale of a "white crow" and their consequent exposure to a world around them they are inherently alien to. This, before undergoing a gradual inception into it. It all smells suspiciously of said example's Elijah Wood character, an American getting lost amidst the sociological norms of a hooligan-dominated zone and having to undergo this process of initiation so as to get by. A similar framework of someone as much-an outcast to their surroundings getting involved, before realising the nature of one's ways and one's life, is told here, only over the space of about thirty years and not as engagingly.The film follows that of true-to-life criminal-come-hooligan turned author Cass Pennant; a man whose tale here is as true as they tell us it is, and yet doesn't carry that naturalistic sense that it is someone's life actually progressing from one point to another. Told in glaringly episodic fashion, a fresh popular song peppering the soundtrack every time the era jumps forward, Nonso Anozie plays the titular lead: a man of Jamaican descent adopted at a young age by a white London couple in the 1960s, and brought up as their own in decent, friendly home-set surroundings. As a youngster, he is marginalised and ridiculed for his colour; a safe haven arriving in the form of a local public house practically run by the fans of West Ham United, whom welcome him in if it means he's a fan of the team and help him out when he runs into those racists outside of hours. This sense of unity is epitomised by the singing in unison those within carry out; football shirts and scarves in the club's colours reiterating this sense of being at one. In an attempt to instill an early sense of where we're at, we observe The Football Factory's own Tamer Hassan doing what the character of Billy Bright did in Nick Love's said 2004 film, when pub-set shenanigans give way to the intimidating of a young kid who thinks he can intermingle with those above his weight.Cass is apprehensive of going to football to begin with; not even his father's reiteration that the stars of the day and certain World Cup winners will be there appears to convince him, but he rides it out and then discovers a taste for what lurks beneath the following of a football team. Thus that of what we see of Cass' life is launched, his descent through hooliganism and organised violence; a world in which the attraction of a footballing 'firm' facing off against another is more appealing than the match itself. West Ham's biggest rivals in this regard are Leeds United, not out of geography nor the fact they are both of an immensely skilled nature alá the Real Madrid-Barcelona ties, but because these two fight the hardest.What transpires are several 'bits' and pieces of Pennant's life: his first feel of football violence; his going to prison; his meeting of a girl; his getting wind of a business venture, none of it much more than slightly interesting and all of it propped up with a lacklustre script seeing dialogue made up of insults and lots of four letter words predominantly coming from that of the males therein with meek moral out-linings accompanying spots of common sense exuded by the females. Director Baird strikes us as someone doing their utmost to make a good film, maturely; his veering off down a route to encompass a sub-plot inspired by Carlito's Way, as well as the fact Cass is later released from prison to the same sound of pomp and circumstance that saw Alex De Large enter prison in Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, suggests the man has seen his fair share of films; enjoyed them and desperately wanted to make his own whilst pay homage, but there is no cumulative whole around which everything gels. Its politics may be in the right place but the film's overall feel as you both watch it and absorb it is that of unsmooth; as if it's fumbling around in the dark for the right buttons, sometimes finding them, but doing its utmost overall to do the right thing.

The trouble with movies like Cass is that they are not bad films by any means, nor do they fail to entertain or live in the memory. It's just the memory already seems overloaded with literally dozens of these flashy, flashback, 80s set designer violence dramas that glorify the exploits of the disaffected youth through their frustrations inside and outside football stadiums. Whilst the obvious difference with this film is that the main character must overcome not only tribal football clashes but the added dimension of racism as well, you can see why the book originally written by the main protagonist himself purported to offer such a rich vein of narrative to adapt into a film. But these kind of movies are now so commonplace, they struggle to offer something new that we haven't already seen many times over. And for that reason the slightest slip up can be catastrophic, and any loose direction or production can see a movie like this lurch from the sublime to the ridiculous quicker than it takes to whack someone with a knuckleduster. Nonso Alonsie plays the lead role with passion and controlled aggression, but somehow fails to quite deliver the same menace as the real life 'hero' himself. Witness (Cass) Pennant in his own words in the special features available on the DVD and he is much more able to display a propensity for violence just bubbling neatly under the surface. But the movie is well worth watching, and doesn't outstay its welcome. It's difficult to recall when the conveyor belt was switched on with this genre, it possibly goes back to the 70s with Alan Clarke's 'Scum' but as a viewer one is just waiting for Danny Dyer to pop up at any moment. Instead, we have Tamer Hassan on hand, who is thankfully a reassuring presence, albeit a familiar one. The movie perhaps also deliberately decides to pull back from the glorification of graphic violence, and is all the better for it.

This is the bio-pic of Cass Pennant who rose through the ranks of the much feared West Ham Inter-City Firm of football casuals . What makes it slightly different from other films in the sub genre is that the protagonist is black when being being black was unfashionable to say the least . The audience are left with the feeling that screenwriter /director Jon S Baird is trying to tell a story of social relevance involving a black child being adopted by a white couple but decided to just chronicle the activities of the ICF since this is the selling point of the movie For a film that involves a football tribe it's rather average with the usual shouts of " FAHK " and " KANT " in mockney accents which probably sums up how self limiting the hooligan sub genre is . There's nothing you've got here that hasn't been done before and has probably been done better in THE FOOTBALL FACTORY . Perhaps the worst failing is the lead performance by Nonso Anozie as the eponymous anti hero . It's not a bad performance at all but Anozie comes across as being far too likable to play someone who breaks heads for a hobby