iBoy

UK, 2017, 90 minutes, Colour.
Bill Milner, Maisie Williams, Miranda Richardson, Rory Kinnear, Jordan Bolger, Charlie Palmer Rothwell.
Directed by Adam Randall.

Audiences beginning to watch Iboy will think of the film as a small-budget local drama, friends, school, gangs and bullying, drug deals. However, when the hero is affected after a shooting and pieces of his iPhone are embedded in his brain, he is transformed with superpowers, an ability to see and hear, to do calculations in his mind, visions of what other people are doing and a transformation into a kind of vigilante during the night, people will be thinking of Peter Parker and Spiderman.

Bill Milner is the young man, Miranda Richardson his grandmother, Rory Kinnear the sneering boss of the drug dealers.

1. A small-budget British thriller? The touches of technological science-fiction? The touches of the superhero films? Echoes of Spiderman?

2. The London settings, the streets, crime? Drugs? Homes and flats? Hospitals? School? The musical score?

3. The title, the tone? 21st-century technology?

4. Tom, his character, family, with his Nan? The relationship? His being something of a loner? At school, classes? His friendship with Lucy? The boys at school, the relationship
with him, the touch of bullying?

5. Lucy, her character, at school, studies, friendship with Tom, life at home? The disabilities?

6. Eugene and the members of the gang, tough? Bullying Lucy? Keeping her as hostage? The rescue?

7. Tom, supportive of Lucy, the gangs, the shooting, the injuries to his head? Hospital? Part of the phone embedded in his head? Transformation, revelation of the superpowers?

8. The effect on Tom, his character, what he could see, what he could know? The friends, their behaviour, his power over them? The threats to Lucy, his friendship with Lucy, her support, puzzle?

9. The injuries? The effect on the gang? Ganging up on Tom?

10. Tom and his relationship with his grandmother, her concerns for him?

11. Tom becoming a night vigilante?

12. His friend, the betrayal, Elllman and his leadership of the gang, drugs, money?

13. The confrontation with Tom, the threats, ruthless? Tom and his visions, power, the interactions with Ellman with the other members of the gang?

14. A small story of gangs and drugs in London, friendships and love, family?

15. Tom’s future, his powers, the touch of the vigilante and righting wrongs?