Young Soul Rebels review – story of a young, Black, queer London still feels revolutionary

Though Isaac Julien’s Young Soul Rebels can hardly be said to be free of flaws, one thing that this 2023 re-release does highlight is just how revolutionary and forward-looking this must have felt in 1991, even as its story harks back to the 1977 Silver Jubilee. A tale of Black and queer lives lived with some fear but no apology, Julien creates a milieu that would still feel fresh even if it came out today (amusingly, if a film were to come out today looking back as far as Young Soul Rebels did, it would be about the halcyon days of 2009).

It’s an affecting piece of both nostalgia and insight, looking at the interactions between the different musical communities of ‘70s London and the ways in which they’re inextricably tied in with race, sexuality, and class. At its heart is the very convincing friendship between two young Black pirate radio DJs, Caz (Mo Sesay) and Chris (Valentine Nonyela), one that is tested by career ambitions, romances, and a murder mystery after one of Caz’s friends is killed while cruising in a park.

It’s in this latter subplot that Young Soul Rebels has aged most poorly – not from a thematic standpoint, but just the underwhelming style and plotting, which distracts from the otherwise very charming and well-observed world built by Julien. There are tensions, fears, and overwhelming joys as Caz and Chris steadily prepare for an anti-Jubilee funk gig while each maybe falling in love on the side – Caz with idealistic but slightly poncy punk boy Billibud (Jason Durr), Chris with radio station PA Tracy (Sophie Okonedo, in her first screen role).

Of the core cast, only Okonedo truly went on to bigger things, and that’s not a huge shock. Obviously, the opportunities for Black talent in the British film industry were, and remain, shamefully thin on the ground, but it’s also undeniable that a lot of the performances here are pretty amateurish, fun enough to watch at the parties but falling flat at the major emotional hurdles.

With its excellently realised evocation of its own recent past, Young Soul Rebels now feels somewhat like a time capsule within a time capsule, an ode to a London that is always in flux and maybe no longer thrills like it used to. Even with all the faults that can be found here, that’s a message that is eternally powerful.

Young Soul Rebels is re-released in UK cinemas on 28 April.