Ever wonder about the moped thieves who snatch your phone out of your hand? This gang thriller puts them at the centre of a relatively traditional crime movie. Boosted by familiar actors and an authentic city setting, Gassed Up isn’t always a gas, but it does have something to say.
Directed by George Amponsah, the film follows 20-year-old Ash (Blue Story’s Stephen Odubola), a dreamer who swipes phones in the hopes of paying for his mother’s £25,000 rehab bill (apparently he’s given up on the NHS). While Ash brags about his exploits on social media like a gangster, at home he’s a nice guy trying to look after his sister while his mother is largely absent. The film rather aimlessly follows him between home, ‘work’ and club nights, before getting a handle on the tension rather late in the day. This comes courtesy of the Albanian crime family connected to his friend, Dubz (Taz Skylar). Dubz’s cousin is Shaz (Jelena Gavrilović), a severe femme fatale who receives stolen goods in a dramatically-lit bunker flanked by heavies.
Gassed Up is a little more original when it’s exploring the backgrounds of these Londoners, including undocumented immigrants like Dubz. Skylar co-wrote the film, and gives his character some on-the-nose lines. ‘It’s a job, for those of us who need to catch up on some of the privileges we didn’t inherit,’ he says, asking Ash to step up to a particularly tough task. This gives an insight into the culture of desperation, even if the fast-paced moped culture also comes with the ability to ‘gas up’ participants by offering them an ego boost.
Gassed Up isn’t always a gas, but it does have something to say
Unless you’re embedded in that world, it’s hard to judge the overall authencity (although it did win the audience award at the 2023 London Film Festival). It may not be the best or the sharpest of its genre, but it’s a respectable entry with plenty of London locations to spot. And one scene shown entirely from the thieves’ POV is alarmingly fun. Bonus feature: a perplexing but mesmerising moment in which Ash – fresh from a sexual encounter with Kelly (Mae Muller) – dances around his council flat, dry humping the sofa to the song ‘We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off’. Barry Keoghan in Saltburn, eat your heart out.
In UK cinemas Feb 9.