Parents' Guide to Bullet Boy

Before Top Boy became a Netflix hit, Walters made his first starring role in this 2004 gun violence drama, set in the same east London borough of Hackney. In Bullet Boy, Walters plays the young but already world-weary Ricky, released from prison and doing his best to go straight while still standing by his friends and family. However, getting drawn into an ugly disagreement as Wisdom (Leon Black), to whom Ricky feels indebted, clashes with his local rivals quickly gives everyone cause for concern. Looking on is Ricky's younger brother, Curtis (Luke Fraser), who symbolizes both a loss of innocence and a hope for a brighter future. It's a story full of familiar tropes, but acted and staged with heart and effort by its semi-professional cast. While the script has a tendency to talk in circles at times, Walters' screen presence brings continuity and calm, alongside an equally grounded performance from British screen veteran Clare Perkins, despite her being cast as little more than Ricky and Curtis' understandably anxious mother. Bullet Boy's greatest strength is that it doesn't offer any neat, easy answers for the problems it portrays but still manages to make us care about everyone involved.