The Ellington Kid is kind of based on a true story. Two kids meet up in a standard South London kebab shop and start to spin some urban-legend yarn about what happened to the eponymous kid. Its premise is small and contained. The whole thing could have just been a story overheard at the kebab shop it takes place in, but of course, it has a killer punch line.

The filmmaker Dan Sully skillfully crafts the secondhand story of a gangland stabbing into a cultural conversation piece. The speech, led by the wonderfully ghetto Charlie G. Hawkins from the popular BBC show EastEnders, jumps back and forth from black British comedy to heavy drama regarding the gutted teen found in the same kebab shop. At four minutes, it’d be more efficient and definitely more fun to just watch the short yourself instead of me trying to thirdhand tell it.

Jeffrey Bowers is a tall mustached guy from Ohio who’s seen too many weird movies. He currently lives in Brooklyn, working as an art and film curator. He is a programmer at the Hamptons International Film Festival and screens for the Tribeca Film Festival. He also self-publishes a super fancy mixed-media art serial called PRISM index.

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