Brighton Rock (2011)

Writer Rowan Joffe makes his feature film directorial debut with this searing adaptation of the Graham Greene novel. BRIGHTON ROCK follows psychotic gang leader Pinkie (Sam Riley) and focuses on his power struggles with local rivals and cruel manipulation of those closest to him. Updating the version made previously by John Boutling in 1947 (in which Richard Attenborough starred as Pinkie), Joffe's film transposes the story to the 1960s, at the height of the Mods and Rockers scene. The shift in timeframe gives the film an historic context and authenticity that adds interesting layers to Greene's prose, which is as relevant today as it was when it was first published.