Theo Robertson
Fellow reviewer Bob The Moo has written the synopsis perfectly . It involves three black youths sitting on a wall waiting for their friend and the inciting incident is a young white youth walking past . Nothing happens except to start the three youths have a discussion about race and how well endowed black men are in the trouser department Hmmm . I'll give writer director Destiny Ekraragha the benefit of the doubt and say the film is being ironic and that by discussing humanity's perceived perception for the need of large genitals this is why the Roman Empire started off as being run by people with white skin , blond hair and blue eyes and ended up with brown skin , black hair and brown eyes because it's all down to race mixing innit bruv for real innit The cast do give genuinely natural performances but are let down by the need for urban chav speak . I'm trying hard not quote chunks of dialogue because the site would misinterpret them as spelling errors . I don't know if I'm getting old but I did feel the short might have benefited from subtitles
bob the moo
Three young men are waiting for their friend on a wall in Lewisham, complaining about his lateness. However when a young man walks past wearing tight skinny-style jeans the conversation turns to how someone can wear such tight clothing. From there they get into sexual stereotypes, racial politics, slavery and so on.I saw Tight Jeans recently on Channel 4 as part of a season of urban culture and I wasn't quite sure what I was to expect, so I was open to whatever. What I got was something that doesn't really have a point to make or an agenda but rather just a short that captures a collection of random conversation between the characters. A lot of topics are covered and the characters make sense or don't, are right or wrong but they are still quite real and natural. Some of them are "right" in what they say but have the wrong motives perhaps for their opinions and in some cases what they say reveals an ignorance of their own culture as well as others, but the key thing is that they all come across like this is just a conversation between friends, spit-balling to kill time. As such it is interesting but also quite amusing in what it does.Although the set is a wall in a car park and the action is limited to three young men on that wall, director Ekaragha does well to find something for her camera to do. Rather than just point at the three of them she moves it around well, gives different angles and shots but never breaks up the flow of the characters of the dialogue. If the actors have not been in front of a camera before then it doesn't show as they are natural and good-humoured throughout. Overall, Tight Jeans doesn't open your eyes to a major truth, but it does capture honest conversation between three young men and, in the process of what they say, also hints at comic ignorance and assumptions between cultures – the fact that some white guys can wear such tight jeans is just the first of them.
