I've been a fan of Riz Ahmed ever since I saw him in Shifty back in 2008 . Since then he's done some brilliant stuff such as the TV show The Night Of to films such as Four Lions , Nightcrawler, and The Sound Of Metal .
While this isn't quite up to the standard of those mentioned it certainly can't be accused on not being interesting.
This is the story of a rapper who just before a major tour finds he has a degenerate muscle disease. Not only does he have to battle the illness, he has to put up with a religious father who doesn't have faith in the traditional medicines.
A manager who doesn't have his best interests at heart and the constant thoughts and hallucinations that are going on in his head .
Riz Ahmed is great . The film itself is quite hard work . It's a bit grim at times and the people on show are not always the nicest .
I'm not a fan of the music on show here , which doesn't help but I do find it lyrically very clever , especially Zed's battle with his identity.
This won't be to everyone's taste and it definitely won't be as popular as some of his other films but I found it interesting and irritating ,( mainly the religious nonsense ) at the same time and that's a good thing - I think .