Gangster movies all too often fall into type. Blame Goodfellas - it refined the rise-and-fall narrative to such an extent that any movie since can't help but repeat it, meaning there's been only a handful of movies in the genre since 1990 that offer up something genuinely fresh. Beeba Boys certainly wants to be in that company. Its criminals are Indo-Canadian gangsters and there's a family-esque camaraderie, yet it far too readily falls back on genre tropes. So of course there's a mole subplot and deals gone wrong, but above all, the film is dominated by the unshaken belief that for all the crime the main characters are "cool". And cool is the operative word; from the vibrant stylings and dapper costume design to its flat-out idolising of head gangster Jeet, as if the movie has seen Scarface and like many a nineties teen taken the story of Tony Montana at face value. Although you wish the inspirations were as lofty as Tony Montana. What really grates is its bizarre attempt to use what the film deems to be "necessary" pop culture references and try and twist them into something emotionally impactful; the final heroic sacrifice is motivated by a confused Transformers analogy. When a movie's turning to animadverts or Michael Bay (which Generation we're talking isn't made clear) for inspiration isn't clear, but it leaves the whole thing confused and rather pathetic. The film was first screened at Toronto and somehow became one of the London Film Festival's Gala screenings, but has since dropped with only a minor Canadian release to its name. It's still trotting round the festival circuit though, so may eventually wind up on a screen near you. Avoid.
