SoulBoy

UK 2010, 82 minutes
Dir. Shimmy Marcus
Rating: [M]
Genres: Drama / Dance, Youth

Topics: Period 1970s.

Feat. Martin Compston, Felicity Jones, Alfie Allen, Craig Parkinson, Nichola Burley, Pat Shortt

Aroview: Hip-shaking youth drama set amongst the Northern Soul scene of the 1970's in which a frustrated teenager experiences a musical awakening while juggling awkward romantic options.

Produced with loving attention to the period detail and with an appealing cast, the narrative might check all the usual boxes of the 'dance drama' genre but it refreshingly sidesteps obvious commercial imperatives to instead present a lost and little-seen British youth subculture in a close-to-authentic light.

As documented in THE WIGAN CASINO, Northern Soul (then called 'Rare Soul') was a revivalist movement peculiar to the north of England that inspired devotion to esoteric, high energy black American soul music of the 1960's.