London to Brighton

London to Brighton (2006) is a hard-edged British crime drama you can watch online on iFILM, the feature debut of writer-director Paul Andrew Williams. It opens at 3am: an eleven-year-old named Joanne and a woman called Kelly stumble into a filthy London toilet, both bruised and bleeding.

The film doles out the previous night in fragments. Kelly is an aging sex worker, Joanne a runaway, and both are fleeing Derek — a pimp who suddenly needs Kelly found, because a client named Allen is bleeding out in his bathroom and his son wants answers. The train to Brighton is their one way to vanish.

Shot on next to no money with a handheld camera and real streets, Williams' debut hits harder than thrillers ten times its budget. Lorraine Stanley and young Georgia Groome carry it without a drop of sentimentality. Lean, brutal, eighty-five honest minutes — not an easy sit. Stream London to Brighton (2006) online on iFILM.