A lonely ex-soldier in his 50s and at a crisis point in his life, Frank (Eddie Marsan) traipses the pavement between his flat and the local off licence with increasing regularity, stocking up on the booze and fags he appears to exist on. On one of his shopping trips, he comes across Lynette (Candese Reid), a black teenager sleeping rough, and, though initially frosty toward each other, the unlikely pair bond. Meanwhile, high-powered businesswoman Christine (Romola Garai) struggles to hold things together, juggling job, drug habit, affair with a married man and being mother to a baby daughter, without great success. All three characters are searching for some kind of hope or redemption, though when Lynette’s manipulative, menacing boyfriend Danny (Tom Sturridge) appears on the scene, it appears things could get worse for them all before they get any better. The debut feature from Tinge Krishnan, who made the BAFTA-winning short Shadowscan, Junkhearts is a striking example of British independent filmmaking, a sophisticated social drama that carries real weight and purpose. The cast are uniformly excellent; while Marsan and Garai are reliably so and Tom Sturridge confirms his rising-star status, newcomer Candese Reid is, on this showing, a genuine discovery. –BFI
