Pirates (2022) marks the feature directorial debut for multi-hyphenate British filmmaker Reggie Yates. Set in London on New Year’s Eve, 1999, Pirates follows three 18-year-old friends as they embark on an Odyssean quest to weasel their way into the hot club party in South London. However, bubbling underneath is a young lifetime’s worth of friend group frustration. Cappo (Elliot Edusah) went off to university. Back in London, Two Tonne (Jordan Peters) and Kidda (Reda Elazour) keep plugging away at a prospective music career. Cappo is their manager, but he’s returned committed to telling his best mates that he has to move on. As antics, teenage angst, and friend group growing pains flicker about, Cappo, Two Tonne, and Kidda trek all over London. They quest for these tickets, which they think mark an arrival to adulthood.
Yates’ film joins the ranks of American Graffiti (1973) and Dazed and Confused (1993) as an all-in-one-day story dedicated to examining late teenage years without ever slipping into patronization. Pirates treats the boys’ labors with a clear sense of empathy and earnestness. When you’re 18, getting a ticket so you can be in the same place as the girl you might be in love with, as is the case for Two Tonne, feels like the holy grail of a lifetime. Having to tell your two best friends you’re going to shift things up, as Cappo will, is deadly serious. Yates’ script unwinds their story with real tenderness, all while maintaining a nonstop stream of laughs. Cappo, Two Tonne, and Kidda are truly hilarious together, both in their exchanges and the predicaments they stumble into together. It’s a tricky balance, but Yates threads the story needle.
He is supported in that endeavor by the combined talents of his leading trio. Edusah, Peters, and Elzazour enter the running for my favorite on-screen friend group on the wings of their ludicrous chemistry. It is a daunting task to capture a sense of shared history, but these three embody it from the jump. In all of 15 minutes, we can understand that Cappo resents how his mates overlook his commitment to them just as well as we comprehend it’s not that simple because the three clearly love each other dearly. They talk over each other, tossing around references and inside jokes the way only the best of friends can. Fights erupt as easily as laughing fits. Especially during the wonderful array of scenes in Cappo’s ugly-yellow car as they drive around the city. They sing to their favorite songs, shout about crisps, and fight with sticky seatbelts.
On top of all this, I was over the moon to see Yates and the actors present the trio as a warmly sentimental group. Yes, they are 18-year-old young men raging with the hormonal posturing of wanting desperately to look cool and woo women, but that performative side does not come at the cost of foregrounding their fondness for each other. They hug, cuddle on a couch, and are generally physically affectionate with each other. I cannot properly express the joy it elicits to see that. Far too many films play off young male tenderness as a punchline or conduit for awkwardness, choices that only serve to codify toxically masculine representations in media. Cappo, Two Tonne, and Kidda are a balm in their refusal to bend to that concept. It is truly quietly revolutionist work on Yates’s part.
Speaking of Yates, he also manages to excel as an aesthetic and tonal stylist. Pirates positively shimmers with energy and visual wit. He wastes no time setting the standard, opening the film with a lovely musical credits sequence featuring the boys dancing in colorful suits in front of an eye-catching piece of art. Yates maintains that spirit throughout. His camera matches his protagonists’ rhythm, coursing along as they bop about. Paired with that, a practically prismatic production design injects every sequence with color to spare. He also continues the music-first attitude of the credits, mixing diegetic and non-diegetic tracks into just about every sequence. Whether it’s music in the car, the club, or a needle drop over the boys’ latest escapade, the choice matches the characters’ music-obsessed personalities. As a result, Pirates swells with enthusiasm from Yates’ spirited directorial vision.
Some movies you just want to hang out in. Get to know their characters and settings because the energy on the screen simply projects contentment. Pirates is one of those movies for me, a project I can see myself revisiting whenever I need an injection of unassuming positivity and joy in my life. If that at all sounds like something you might find pleasant, don’t miss out on this gem.
Pirates was viewed in the Narrative Spotlight section of SXSW 2022.
Director: Reggie Yates
Writer: Reggie Yates
Rated: NR
Runtime: 80m
Rating: 5 out of 5
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Devin McGrath-Conwell holds a B.A. in Film / English from Middlebury College and is currently pursuing an MFA in Screenwriting from Emerson College. His obsessions include all things horror, David Lynch, the darkest of satires, and Billy Joel. Devin’s writing has also appeared in publications such as Filmhounds Magazine, Film Cred, Horror Homeroom, and Cinema Scholars.
