The Last Tree

Stories about young people trying to find their way are always close to anyone's heart and easy to feel familiar with, at least to some extent. The Last Tree drops a rural kid in the middle of London and the shock that follows is easy to understand here. It's got some gorgeous shots but I thought some of the scenes had colors that were a little bit too... obvious? Like seeing the same blue+red scheme a lot of times here.

It's welcome to see a young British Black man portrayed in a complex and ultimately positive way and, while it's not really for me to comment - not least because it's apparently semi-autobiographical - the film's racial politics are... interesting. His early life in the countryside is portrayed as idyllic; he faces racism - from another Black boy - only when he moves to London, here a sinister and threatening place in which he is beaten by his Nigerian mother and corrupted by an older Black man.