The title refers to a series of demolitions, remembered and retold by archival footage. Residential buildings came crumbling down; people gathered to watch the spectacle and the engulfing smoke. These were sad events, certainly, but they came with the promise of improved housing for local communities – of new beginnings and excitement for the future. We also see a time lapse of a structure taking shape in the place of a felled tower block, almost the mirror image of what came before.
I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning is director Clio Barnard’s first feature film set outside of Yorkshire: based on Keiran Goddard’s novel of the same name and written by Enda Walsh, it’s a story that has her leaving her home region for some travel southwards, landing in Birmingham. With much of the same kitchen-sink realism that shaped her previous work however, we’re introduced to a quintet of childhood friends who have been set on mostly diverging paths in adulthood – if only to always remain tied together, one way or another.
Patrick (Anthony Boyle) is a once hopeful university graduate who now spends his days toiling as a delivery rider for less than minimum wage. He’s the most embittered and fiercely political of the bunch, and it’s clear he feels a despondence around his occupation. He’s also married to his childhood sweetheart Shiv (Lola Petticrew), who stays at home to take care of their two young daughters and her elderly mother. Rian (Joe Cole) is the only one who ‘made it out’; he’s cashed in big day trading and lives down in London. He’s got the swanky yet sterile new build flat, but try as he might, he feels the pangs of being out of place down in the capital. He invests a chunk of his earnings into a construction project back home, the rising residential block whose progress we see interspersed throughout the film. And Conor (Daryl McCormack) is the project’s steward, managing a construction firm with a baby on the way and hopeful about securing the means to provide for his growing family.
Oli (Jay Lycurgo) rounds out our gang of pals, and it’s his 30th birthday that sets the film in motion. As far as milestones go, 30 connotes a certain seriousness. Now, the night of the birthday, the group all indulge in unrestrained hedonism (drink, drugs and the like) – but Oli emerges in the ensuing period reevaluating his drug dealing and trying to get a hold on his own addiction. The others (save for Rian) face up to the sobering reality of trying to make ends meet while looking towards a bleak future. The hallmark aspirations – getting on the property ladder, saving for retirement – are plainly unfathomable.
It’s no surprise, then, that the film intermittently slips into a didactic tone. Patrick makes some rousing speeches about the erosion of social housing, and they’re pretty fitting for a disillusioned young man who gets little respite from the grind. The speeches are most potently aimed at Rian, who almost treats his affluence as a hindrance and is suggestible towards bankrolling affordable housing with the new development, rather than increasing his profit margins on a lucrative real estate investment.
The cast do lovely work bringing this rowdy but tight-knit friendship group to life: of course, there are in-jokes and animated chats, but the commitment to non-verbal gestures and physical affection is what really sells the long-standing bonds. The male vulnerability in Buildings is also plumbed to beautiful effect and there’s commendable accent work (given that of the five, there isn’t a Brummie actor in sight). And if the film is a paean to the value of close friendship, it throws in some recognition for the good old pub as well – the site of many a friendship and backdrop to this group’s lively and euphoric singalong to The Streets’ ‘Don’t Mug Yourself’.
Their collective electric energy is the crucial counterweight to the dismal prospects, futile efforts, and unrelenting pressures attached to the light of day. When the film moves towards individual arcs, it occasionally sputters – perhaps with too much ground to cover and too many journeys to chart. But Barnard felt pulled towards this project because she was so deeply endeared by this circle of friends; by the end of Goddard’s novel, she was heartbroken at having to leave them behind. For any flaws that Buildings may have, the audience will at least feel this.
I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning screened at the London Film Festival and will be released in UK cinemas on 4 December 2026.
