DVD Review: In SKET, a Brit Girl Gang Inflicts Pain on Themselves and Others

By embracing almost every stereotype common to youth gang movies, writer / director Nirpal Bhogal runs the risk of viewers losing interest in Sket before the slowly-building drama can build up a healthy head of steam.

It's all here: the nasty local gang boss who kills innocent people to make a point to his underlings; his heedlessly devoted woman, who is tough on the outside but a marshmellow on the inside; and the street-level hoods who think nothing of inflicting pain and destruction upon man and property alike.

Yet Sket overcomes the familiarity of its plot beats by virtue of its atmosphere -- gritty with a layer of glamour ladled on top -- and its feminine point of view. The hoods, the ones who are just as likely to pick up a brick and toss it through a window or into your face as they are to snarl at passing strangers, are four teenage girls who have created a bubble around themselves by lashing out, fiercely and violently, at anyone who crosses their self-determined boundaries of propriety.

As an entry point for the proceedings, Bhogal builds the drama around Kayla (Aimee Kelly), a beguiling lost soul who looks so pitifully white bread in the neighborhood where she and her older sister have moved that she might as well have the word 'VICTIM' carved into her forehead. It's not entirely believable when she mouths dialogue that needs to come from a tougher interior; the young actress looks the part but is not able to convey the steely desperation that should be rising off her character like stink off a dying pig.

On the other hand, Emma Hartley-Miller pulls off gang leader Danielle, AKA Daze, with the kind of elastic emotional volitility that's absolutely essential in the role. Her gang mates may be pro forma, but Danielle is the real deal, the kind of young woman you wouldn't want to encounter in a dark alley, with a touch of vulnerability hiding beneath several layers of tough skin.

Kayla and Danielle meet when the latter rises up to defend the former from unwanted male attention on a bus. It soon becomes apparent that Danielle and her gang are less interested in helping out someone in need than in asserting their dominance of any space in which they travel.

In parallel, a slightly older woman known as Shaks (Riann Steele) is the willing accomplice of local crime boss Trey (Ashley Walters), a nasty brute. She stands by as he inflicts over-the-top punishment, especially to women. Her pie-in-the-sky yearning for some kind of "normal" life with a vicious punk is difficult to comprehend, so her role becomes another cog in the plot machine, but she unwittingly serves to bring Kayla and Danielle closer together.

Bhogal is a stronger director than writer, and wisely keeps the pace moving nicely through the weaker links of the script. Sket won't blow anyone away, but it presents its story with a degree of fresh elan, and Bhogal is a director to watch.

The Disc: I was provided with a review copy of the PAL Region 2 DVD from Revolver Entertainment, which should be fairly well identical to the NTSC Region 1 DVD that the same company is releasing.

The picture looked strong, with accurate color reproduction, and the DD 5.1 audio sounded excellent, which is especially important for a movie with so much music contributing to the aural atmosphere.

The most substantial of the special features is the 23-minute "making of," which features interviews with the filmmakers and cast members. The actresses talk extensively about their characters as they see and understand them. We also learn that capturing the proper East London accent was a big concern for Emma Hartley-Miller, who is Scottish.

All in all, it's a good home video package for a film that shines a light on a troubling issue. The Region 2 DVD is available now; the Region 1 DVD is released on Tuesday, July 3.