SXSW Film Review: Pirates

In American Graffiti, the hangout was 1962 San Modesto, California. In Slacker, it was 1989 Austin. And in Reggie Yates’ kinetic debut feature Pirates, the hang is New Year’s Eve, 1999, in the streets and shops and flats and parties of London, wherein three 18-year-old pals want to get into the party of the year.

Cappo (Elliot Edusah) has returned from a semester at university and has to break it to his former high school UK garage crew that he plans on returning. (For the Yanks: UK garage was a very British-sounding mix of hip-hop, jungle, ragga, and techno - it was and is an extraordinary music.)

He meets up with high school pals and pirate radio broadcasters Terrell (Jordan Peters) and Kidda (Reda Elazouar), intending to spend a quiet evening playing video games with his mates. Terrell, still convinced their crew is viable, decides all three need to get tickets to the Y2K bash at legendary club Twice as Nice, wherein holds the promise of wine, women, and song (and possible industry connections).

The ticket MacGuffin is a good one. It sends the trio all over the place, encountering the local jeans bootlegger, Terrell’s ex-girlfriend (and a truly excellent Backstreet Boys joke), and all sort of characters. They hit the barbershop and clothing store, deal with a Caribbean restaurant close to closing time and a gent to whom Terrell owes a bit of a debt.

In the background and animating the mates (especially Terrell) is the promise of the UK garage scene in the late 1990s, a moment a colleague once told me was as pregnant with potential energy as punk in 1977.

Yates cearly made Pirates as an ode to that moment, a pre-Internet-everywhere time when fans had to tune into the pirate stations to hear the latest garage bangers but fans still traded tapes and burned CD-Rs. It also turns out Yates is both a terrific visual stylist and director of actors. He packs the movie with era-specific references and cameos, directs with energy and verve, weaving together the plot threads together in an emotionally credible way. The tremendous chemistry between the three leads doesn’t hurt.

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Pirates

Narrative Spotlight, International Premiere
Monday, March 14, 7:30pm, Alamo Lamar
Wednesday, March 16, 6:45pm, Violet Crown
Wednesday, March 16, 7:15pm, Violet Crown
Online: March 12, 9am-March 14, 9am