"SHINEY" (2020) Review

“SHINEY”

Paul Holbrook (2020)

“SHINEY”, by Paul Holbrook (2020), is a Short coming of age film that follows two teenagers and their struggle to obtain a packet of cigarettes in the hope that they subsequently become the ‘cool kids’.

The film opens with some establishing shots of a housing estate, some aggressive hip-hop and an angry mother shouting; requesting that the music be turned down. Our Protagonist storms out of the front door and warm hues flood the frame as SHINEY introduces itself as an off-beat, modern and effectively realised tale of maturation. 

Fig. 1 Our Dual Protagonists await outside a local shop. SHINEY (2009) 

The titular “SHINEY” takes it’s form as a McGuffin device, a trading card, which through exposition we are told is extremely rare. In my opinion, this is a master stroke in it's simplicity and in it's potency to effectively drive the plot forward. The 'Shiney' plays into a sense of nostalgia that we have as adults, effectively utilising a relatable and simplistic object of sentimentality to embody the perspective of the Character. We immediately understand the intrinsic value of the card through the lens of the our own adolescence and in turn, the Characters represented in the film. For anyone familiar with any form of collecting, it taps into a historic frame of reference of having been teenagers ourselves and understanding the transient nature of schoolyard crazes. To have this card is to hold power, garner respect and be admired. Additionally as an adult viewer, my mind was cast back to other iconic uses of McGuffins’, particularly through Holbrook’s use of radiating light when then the McGuffin is shown between Characters. For anyone familiar with film, perhaps the most obvious similarity that comes to mind is the briefcase in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.

SHINEY is well cast and both of the lead performers do well to pull off what isn’t always a convincing script. For all the heart that SHINEY has visually, at times it seems to miss the mark with its writing. Despite trying to be a good-natured homage to the misspent youth of the Proletarian, SHINEY can sometimes feel as though it’s more of an exploitative charicature of working class life, rather than a celebration. As somebody who grew up in a similar environment to the one depicted on screen, I felt as though the dialogue was littered with slang that from my personal experience, felt inauthentic and forced. When researching the film further, I found it interesting to learn that the two protagonists and all supporting actors had been cast from the housing estate where the film had been shot. This informed my view to take a different direction and I respected that the writers had spent time with the people living on the estate and also provided them with the opportunity to be a part of their project. 

Without knowing the origins of Holbrook, the film’s creator, it’s difficult to establish whether this is is a lovingly fictionalised story of his experience of growing up in a working class environment, deliberately littered with ironic slang in an effort to reenforce the Protagonist’s need to be accepted, or an ill-informed understanding of the language used by the working class, with his observations coming from a place of privilege. 

The portrayal of the "Cool kids" is something that appears to have had consideration and felt more deliberate in it's attempt to satirise the misinformed choice of role models when you are young. The pimpled faces hanging around on park benches, getting their nicotine fixes. Some of the outfit choices felt a little too on-the-nose (See below), but it's perhaps safe to assume that that was the intention given the context of the story.

Despite my feelings about the representation of the working class in SHINEY, I think it’s an intelligent, emotional story of growing up, acceptance and of finding your own identity. It’s aim isn’t to provide a visceral portrait of the turbulent years into adulthood, but rather to give viewers a fun, snappy and relatable tale of youth and acceptance and it accomplishes this in it’s visual style and content. It’s important to note that regardless of Holbrook’s own upbringing or socio-economic status, he has produced a piece of work that transcends the class-system in it’s innate ability to provoke a feeling of nostalgia, even if at times the Characters don’t always feel believable.

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WATCH "SHINEY" HERE