Sorrow filled children practice escapism through imaginative chaos and brutal violence in Nabil Elderkin directed film “Gully”. Based in South Central L.A., in a low income area infused with crime, the film follows three teenaged boys, whose troubled upbringings lead them to a tragically revolting 48 hours of ultra-violence. Baptized in blood from battery and assault, each boy uniquely had their innocents ripped from them in their childhood by the malevolent actions of adults. Bonded by trauma and their shared sense of personal damnation, the three boys forge a brotherhood.
Calvin (Jacob Latimore), the charismatic group leader, is an intellectually gifted boy with a creative mind fuelled by his distain for a world he feels he doesn’t belong in. Nicky (Charlie Plummer) represents how impressionable youth can be; lacking any kind of authority, he convinces himself that through his naive actions he can birth a sense of control into his life. Jesse (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) the most exploited of the three, is consumed by such overwhelming shame from his childhood that he grows up unable to speak. Serving as the film’s narrator, Jesse’s story is one that gives true meaning behind the boy’s ruthless actions, their inner pain turns physical at the sight of his abuse, and their blood thirst becomes justifiable.
“Gully” shows what can happen when young boys lacking security, with little to lose, who are continuously demoralized, underestimated, and belittled, begin to take part in criminal activity. The three boys release their inner torment both through self-destructive behaviours, and by conducting assaults; both of which they grew up witnessing in their home and in their neighbourhood. Taking a page from Alex and his droogs from “A Clockwork Orange”, the boys launch a bloody crime spree, where they debase public property, attack and manipulate strangers, and commit a murder, all while indulging in drugs. More than a story about three delinquents, “Gully” delves into topics of social injustice, socioeconomic hardships, youth gang violence, and childhood traumas bred by domestic abuse.
When the film’s writer Marcus Guillory was asked about the inspiration behind his vulnerable screenplay by “Okayplayer” he explained; “The kids I was around interviewing. I was living in Morningside Heights in South Central. I’d listen. It was a very active gang neighbourhood. What I realized was most of the “hood” urban films with young Black men in it was either a gang story, a drug story — cops and robbers — or these tropes we fit these kids into and figure out how they’ll get out. The whole majority of kids in impoverished communities, that’s not what’s going on with them. None of the movies spoke to that, they didn’t have a special thing they did.” Guillory’s aims to give an alternate perspective into the lives of children living in these areas, whose stories are often exploited for entertainment. Though “Gully” is visually gripping, filled with magic realism and captivating camera work, the film’s true focus is on the refinement of an abused child, concentrating on their development into domineering adolescents.
Director Nabil Elderkin, best known for his work as a music video director, incorporates his signature hypnotizing surreal visuals in his feature film directorial debut for “Gully”. Taking inspiration from a video game, the three boys take to L.A. streets in a hallucinatory state, mentally immersing themselves into the game, acting as if they are characters within it; to texturize the children’s comparative actions to the game, Elderkin adds a magic realism aesthetic approach to the film’s visuals, inputting digitally animated components of the game into the children’s reality. Elderkin also previously worked as a combat photographer in Syria and the Congo, he has a record of stunningly capturing the emotional essence of a child in conflict; in “Gully”, the close up’s on characters faces as they respond to their shocking environments, or as they are making taxing decisions, is reminiscent of this compassionate visual character commentary.
While “Gully” addresses topics not often confronted in Hollywood films, exposing childhood traumas that are produced and often disregarded in impoverished areas, the narrative acts as a fully crafted puzzle with central pieces missing. While the important frame work of the film is well displayed, and the topics Guillory aimed to target are properly flushed out, there are symbolic components that are half heartedly introduced, leaving viewers scrambling to interpret underlying meanings of ambiguous plot deviations. Though these few moments of uncertainty should not overshadow “Gully”’s unique telling of boyhood fellowship, nor should the film’s cryptic imagery discourage viewers from delving further into Nabil’s surrealist filmography.
(C+)
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