Film

Rocks

Name: Rocks
Genre: Drama
Released: 2020
Cast: Bukky Bakray, Kosar Ali, D'Angelou Osei-Kissiedu, Shaneigha-Monik Greyson, Ruby Stokes

Coming-of-age

A fierce, unsentimental film about a fifteen-year-old London girl holding her life together after her mother abandons her and her younger brother. Rocks is shot in bright, immediate naturalism—less like a problem film, more like real life captured at its most pressurized and funny. For anyone who's felt the gap between what adults think they see and what's actually happening.

TMDb rating

3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like coming-of-age stories built on friendship, stubborn humour and the practical, day-to-day problem-solving of kids who have to grow up fast, rather than on big speeches.

Skip it if you want a plot that builds to a clear dramatic release, since much of it moves through small, anxious errands and quiet hesitations.

What it asks of you: Runs a short 94 minutes and keeps its attention close to one restless girl, so it rewards patience with small moments more than it hurries toward climaxes.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Florida Project2017

Captures childhood resilience and improvisation in the face of precarity with the same unsentimental warmth. It's about kids making joy where there's no safety net, and it trusts them completely to carry the story.

But The ending shifts register into something darker and more devastating than the rest. Some find it a tonal whiplash.

Eighth Grade2018

Bo Burnham's debut is equally attentive to the small humiliations and genuine victories of being an adolescent. It's tender without being condescending, and genuinely funny about the particular terror of growing up now.

But The empathy can feel claustrophobic. Being inside that much adolescent anxiety and self-doubt exhausts some viewers.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always2020

Another portrait of girls navigating an impossible system with quiet determination and mutual loyalty. It shares Rocks' refusal to sentimentalize its subjects' circumstances or their choices.

But It's deliberately paced and spare—some find it slow. The emotional core emerges gradually rather than spelled out.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Rocks

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

My Brother the Devil2012

Both are intimate, location-specific portraits of London teenagers holding tight to small circles of people they love while the world presses in. Neither treats its subjects' circumstances as inherently tragic—just true.

Sally El Hosaini's debut is about a London teenager navigating loyalty, identity, and survival in a world that offers him very few choices. It shares Rocks' specificity and its refusal to make poverty or precarity the entire point of a character's life.

But The gangland storyline and violence are real, not metaphorical. It's darker and more dangerous than Rocks, which might pull you away from the character study.

Moonlight2016

Three chapters of a life shaped by fragile bonds and the search for safety. Like Rocks, it's built on the unshowy dignity of its characters and the spaces between moments where real feeling lives.

But The oblique narrative structure and quiet tone might feel slight if you're waiting for conventional drama or catharsis.

Under the Skin2014

A radically stripped-down film about observation and presence. It refuses to explain itself or provide emotional scaffolding—it trusts you to feel what's being shown, which is exactly what Rocks does.

But It's experimental and frustrating by design. You have to surrender to ambiguity, and that's a real obstacle if you prefer clarity.

Aftersun2022

Another quiet, textured film about love and the things parents and children can't say to each other. It captures the texture of ordinary moments that contain everything.

But The narrative threads are impressionistic and don't resolve tidily. It asks you to sit with unease rather than provide answers.

The Farewell2019

Lulu Wang's film about family, mortality, and the gap between what's spoken and what's understood speaks a similar language—warm, specific, allowing comedy and heartbreak to coexist.

But If you prefer linear plotting and clear stakes, the cultural specificity and tonal shifts might read as unfocused.

Ladybird Ladybird1994

Greta Gerwig's film about a girl at odds with her mother and her circumstances has the same specificity and warmth. It loves its characters without needing them to be likeable.

But The indie-film texture and focus on emotional fine print rather than plot can feel thin if you need bigger dramatic moments.

Minari2021

Lee Isaac Chung's film about a family trying to build something together in an indifferent landscape shares Rocks' unsentimental affection for its subjects and their small victories.

But The father's storyline can feel sidelined. Some viewers want more dramatic throughline than the film's episodic structure provides.

We Need to Talk About Kevin2011

Both films trust the audience to understand complex feelings about people we're supposed to love but also fear. Both refuse the comfort of clear judgment.

Lynne Ramsay's film is also about a parent-child bond fractured beyond repair, shot with visual intensity that refuses easy emotion. It's brutal and precise in the same way Rocks is—clear-eyed about damage and attachment.

But It's genuinely difficult to watch. The subject matter is violent, and Ramsay's style is deliberately disorienting. It's not cathartic—it's unsettling.