''Been So Long'' is a 2018

musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks ...

directed by Tinge Krishnan based on the musical of the same name, with a screenplay written by Ché Walker. It is based on a musical premiered at the

Young Vic The Young Vic Theatre is a performing arts venue located on The Cut, near the South Bank, in the London Borough of Lambeth. The Young Vic was established by Frank Dunlop in 1970. Kwame Kwei-Armah has been Artistic Director since February 201 ...

on July 11, 2009, which was itself based on the 1998 play of the same name. The film was released on 26 October 2018 by

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

Premise

Simone, a single mother, meets and falls in love with a handsome stranger named Raymond while out for a rare night on the town with her friends. The questions the film poses are: Can Simone loosen her heart to let someone get close to her? and does Raymond, who is on parole from prison, deserve her trust? There are storylines about Simone's disabled daughter; her daughter's estranged father, and Simone's relationship with her best friend. In the background, Raymond is being stalked by a wild knife wielding young man. It is set in

Camden Town Camden Town (), often shortened to Camden, is a district of northwest London, England, north of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Camden, and identified in the London Plan as o ...

, London, with scenes in

Camden Market The Camden markets are a number of adjoining large retail markets, often collectively referred to as Camden Market or Camden Lock, located in the historic former Pickfords stables, in Camden Town, London. It is situated north of the Hampstead R ...

Regent's Canal Regent's Canal is a canal across an area just north of central London, England. It provides a link from the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, north-west of Paddington Basin in the west, to the Limehouse Basin and the River Thames in eas ...

, and

Primrose Hill Primrose Hill is a Grade II listed public park located north of Regent's Park in London, England, first opened to the public in 1842.Mills, A., ''Dictionary of London Place Names'', (2001) It was named after the natural hill in the centre of ...

Cast

Michaela Coel Michaela Ewuraba Boakye-Collinson (born 1 October 1987), known professionally as Michaela Coel, is a British screenwriter and actress. She is best known for creating and starring in the E4 sitcom ''Chewing Gum'' (2015–2017), for which she won ...

as Simone *

Arinzé Kene Arinzé Mokwe Kene () is a Nigerian-born British actor and playwright. Early life In 1987, Kene was born in Lagos, Nigeria and moved to London when he was four. Kene's father was a taxi driver. Kene was bullied growing up and was encouraged ...

as Raymond * George MacKay as Gil *

Joe Dempsie Joseph Maxwell Dempsie (born 22 June 1987) is an English actor, best known for his roles as Chris Miles in the E4 teen comedy-drama '' Skins'' (2007–2008) and Gendry Baratheon in ''Game of Thrones'' (2011–2013; 2017–2019). Dempsie's e ...

as Kestrel *

Luke Norris Luke Michael Norris (born 3 June 1993) is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Stevenage. Having played in the youth academies at Luton Town, Hitchin Town and Brentford, Norris made his debut in the Brentford fir ...

as Barney *

Arsher Ali Arsher Ali (born 9 April 1984) is an English actor. He has played various TV and film roles, and is a regular lead performer at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. Personal life Ali is of Pakistani descent. He is a graduate ...

as Jake *

Rakie Ayola Rakie Olufunmilayo Ayola (born May 1968) is a Welsh actress known for her work in theatre and television. Ayola has appeared in television shows including ''Black Mirror'', ''Noughts + Crosses'', ''Doctor Who'', ''Silent Witness'' and ''EastEnde ...

as Martina * Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo as Yvonne *

Ashley Thomas Ashley Thomas is a fictional character from the British soap opera ''Emmerdale'', played by John Middleton. He made his first screen appearance during the episode broadcast on 5 December 1996. It was announced on 22 October 2015 that Middleto ...

as Wendell * Sophia La Porta as Willesden *Tom Forbes as Conrad *

Mark Wingett Mark Christopher Wingett (born 1 January 1961) is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as PC/DC Jim Carver in ''The Bill'' and ''EastEnders'' as Mike Swann, ''Hollyoaks'' as Frank Symons and '' Heartbeat'' as Terry Molloy. His firs ...

as Bailiff *

Genevieve Barr Genevieve Barr (born 12 December 1985)Dehn, Georgia ', 24 June 2010, www.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 13 July 2010. is an English actor and writer of stage and screen. She played the lead role in the BBC award-winning series '' The Silence''. Havin ...

as Artemis

Production

In May 2017, it was announced that principal production of the film had concluded in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, UK. In September 2017,

bought worldwide rights to the film, in what was a "multi-million dollar deal", believed to be Netflix's largest single acquisition of a U.K. film in its history at the time.

Soundtrack

The musical score for ''Been So Long'' was composed by Christopher Nicholas Bangs, and features music from the film’s stars. The digital album was released through

Virgin EMI Records Virgin EMI Records was a British record label owned by the Universal Music Group that was formed in 2013. In June 2020, the label was rebranded as EMI Records, and operates Virgin Records as an imprint of the new EMI Records. History Virgin ...

on 26 October 2018.

Release

It was released on October 26, 2018 by

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of , based on reviews, with an average rating of . On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 1682886, Been So Long 2018 films 2010s musical films English-language Netflix original films Black British films Films based on musicals British musical films 2010s English-language films 2010s British films English-language musical films