Diary of a Bad Lad (2007) – Michael Booth.

Aspiring indie film-maker Barry Lick(Jonathan Williamson) documents the increasingly nefarious machinations of ambitious hoodlum Tommy (Joe O'Byrne), Lick's painfully intimate fly-on-the-wall approach drawing him uncomfortably closer to the sh#t than he had planned for! This volatile, lo-fi admixture of Man Bites Dog and 'Downs Terrace' on Redbull & Steroid Slammers is more ambitious, and inventive than one might think, while a scrappy, grainy, visibly low budget entry into the bellicose Brit-Thug pantheon, Diary of a Bad Lad frequently had a visceral quality that surprised me. Natural, wholly credible performances, showcasing a dynamically deviant turn from O'Byrne as the brutally opportunistic thug Tommy. While occasionally blighted by the lack of funds, Diary of a Bad Lad is entertaining B-movie fare, employing a wicked streak of black humour, with the film's sleazier elements pointedly aimed at a more Grindhouse-savvy audience. Many independently produced British Gangster films share a not altogether disagreeable uniformity, Michael Booth's grungy Found Footage approach proved effective, giving Diary of a Bad Lad a perversely voyeuristic quality that I found enormously appealing.