CINEMA: Cass

Based on the true-life story of Cass Pennant, one of London’s most notorious football hooligans, this docudrama sets out to be gritty and realistic, but comes over as slightly awkward and forced.

Brought up in 1950’s London by a well-meaning white adoptive mother, Jamaican orphan Cass (Nonso Anozie) suffers racial abuse and never feels he fits in anywhere. Then he falls in with the violent West Ham supporters’ South Bank Crew and finally finds a group of people he can call family.  As they rampage their way through the 1960s and 1970s, Cass works his way up through the ranks until he has enough power to launch the Inner City Firm, West Ham’s top gang. But Cass’s violent lifestyle is not easy to shrug off and when he marries and has children, he finds he cannot escape his brutal past.

This story about redemption and turning your life round has a very worthwhile message, however the long scenes of football hooligans brutally beating up other hooligans (and anyone else they can get their hands on) may prove off-putting for those who have no interest in football culture. Anozie copes well in the central role as he remains the focus of most of the action throughout, but if you’re not a footie fan this will probably only have limited appeal.      Dee Pilgrim