First Take: Sumotherhood - allow it, wasteman?

SYNOPSIS: Sequel to 2011 low budget parody of the ‘roadman’ genre Anuvahood, Riko and Kane pick up where they left off and things - inevitably - don’t go to plan when they end up at war with rival gangs.

Adam Deacon is a man who knows British street culture inside and out - having starred in 'serious’ films Kidulthood and Adulthood, as well as writing his own, more satirical take on it with Anuvahood (which became a cult classic within some areas of social media), you’d think that it would land with UK audiences in the dying weeks of the SAG strike - we reviewed this on the day they landed the deal, full disclosure, but something about Sumotherhood just feels… off.

This is a considerably higher budget than Anuvahood, and Deacon’s spent every last penny of it on-screen - it is paced decently at 1 hour 37 minutes, and while the script he’s written with co-star Jazzie Jonzolo and Michael Vu - a very personal script for Deacon following events leading out of his BAFTA Rising Star win in 2012 - is very heavy on the urban language you’d expect from a film like this, it does have an impact on the humour, barely scraping the 6 laugh test purely because of ONE certain line heard in the trailer. It’s shot well by Simon Stolland, and just like he did in 2011, Deacon partnered up with the UK music industry (most notably Universal Music Group) to get a soundtrack that feels authentic for what he’s trying to do.

Deacon and Jonzolo pick right up where they left off in 2011, and sure, they might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but a core subsection of this film’s audience will 'get’ these two characters without any issues. Ultimately for the mainstream audience, this cast is carried by its cameos - Lethal Bizzle, Charlie Sloth pop up in a gig sequence, Denise Van Outen appears as a nurse, Jennifer Saunders is there too, with Jaime Winstone, Linda Robson, Rosie Jones, Ed Sheeran and… actual JEREMY CORBYN? It feels like a draft was written in 2017, then through a perfect storm of UK productions getting in bed with Marvel, Covid and Channel 4 scaling back investment in 'indie’ films like this, Deacon had to wait 4 years to make this. And it clearly shows.

THE VERDICT

Sumotherhood isn’t great, but it is an admirable return to the spotlight for Adam Deacon following his very public struggles in the last few years - the humour is not for everyone, but for those who have known his work, this is what they all wanted to see. Well done British film industry, we made it through the strikes- now it is time to bring in the big guns once again.

RATING: 2.5/5