At the beginning of 'Rocks', the audience sees the images in a vertical rectangular frame, as if they were filmed with a smartphone. For a second, I feared this was going to be the case during the whole film. Fortunately, it is a gimmick that's repeated only now and then for a few seconds.
In fact, it is quite a nice and appropriate feature, because the film is about teenage girls. As teenage girls do, they film each other with their smartphones. The images add to the authenticity of this film, which does a very good job by showing the girls' lives as real as can be.
Rocks, as everyone calls her, is a normal and happy girl, living in a multicultural working class part of London. But her life is turned upside down when one day her mother dissapears, leaving only a note and some money, telling Rocks she 'needs time to clear her head'. From then on, Rocks has to take care of herself and her little brother. She doesn't tell anyone about her mother's dissapearance, fearing the authorities, but her situation gets more and more difficult.
The young actresses are phenomenal. This is as close as you can get to a fly-on-the-wall account of modern teenage life. During the film, friendships develop, as well as mutual aversions. Rocks tests the loyalty of her friends to the limit. Apart from being a portrait of a young girl in difficult circumstances, it is also a tribute to female power and loyalty. Apart from Rocks's little brother and some school teachers, there are almost no male characters in the film.
At times, the film reminded me of 'Entre les murs', the French movie about a difficult school class. At other times, it reminded me of 'Nobody knows', the Japanese movie of children left behind by their mother. Anyone who enjoyed these films, wil enjoy this one too.
