IFC Films’ “Brighton Rock”, written and directed by Rowan Joffe, will be released August 26 at the Angelika Theater & Lincoln Plaza Cinemas in New York and the Landmark Theater in Los Angeles. The film, starring Sam Riley, Andrea Riseborough, Helen Mirren, John Hurt, and Andy Serkis, was an official entry of the 2010 Toronto Film Festival and tells a film noir story of a young man who gets caught up in the criminal life:

Screenwriter Rowan Joffe’s debut feature BRIGHTON ROCK embraces the classic elements of film noir and the British gangster film to tell the story of Pinkie, a desperate youth who is hell bent on clawing his way up through the ranks of organized crime. When a young and very innocent waitress, Rose, stumbles on evidence linking him to a revenge killing, he sets out to seduce her to secure her silence. The film stars up-and-coming British actors Sam Riley (CONTROL, ON THE ROAD) and Andrea Riseborough (MADE IN DAGENHAM, NEVER LET ME GO) as the young couple. Veterans Helen Mirren and John Hurt co-star as two friends who set out to save Rose from Pinkie’s deviant designs. BRIGHTON ROCK is based on the iconic 1939 Graham Greene novel of innocence and evil but the action has been updated to 1964 Britain, the year the Mods and the Rockers were rioting across the South Coast. The 60s were also the era of the great British gangster, the kind of working class hero, the frightened and ambitious Pinkie longs to be.

Brighton Rock

By Monique Jones

Monique Jones blogs about race and culture in entertainment, particularly movies and television. You can read her articles at Racialicious, and her new site, COLOR . You can also listen to her new podcast, What would Monique Say.

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