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Public Enemy / Private Friends (1992)
 

Synopsis

Warning: screenonline full synopses contain 'spoilers' which give away key plot points. Don't read on if you don't want to know the ending!

Matthew purchases three tickets for him and his friends to see their favourite rap band, Public Enemy, in concert. As he prances through the streets in delight, clutching the envelope in his hand, one of the tickets falls out and lands on the road. A middle-aged businessman passing by spots it and nonchalantly picks it up, putting it in his jacket pocket before continuing on his journey. Back at the flat, Peter and Paul anxiously assemble as Matthew hands out each ticket, first to Peter and then Paul, but upon reaching to retrieve the third ticket for himself, he discovers that the envelope is empty. Matthew is distraught. So, despite their desire to go to the concert, Peter and Paul agree not to go without their friend. Thus begins their search to find a replacement.

Matthew visits the leader of another Posse and asks him to use his contacts to get a ticket, but when he asks for the remaining two tickets in return, Matthew is unwilling to negotiate. Meanwhile, Peter asks his girlfriend for help, but even after he subjects himself to her insensitive ridicule, he too leaves empty handed. Paul has enlisted the help of his dog, who he hopes will sniff out the home with a concert ticket, so as he takes to the streets, disguised as a sales man, he tries his luck conning people into giving him their ticket. He resurfaces, roughed up, bruised and ticketless.

Exhausted by their futile attempts, the trio sit on the steps outside the concert hall. The crowds are beginning to form and Peter and Paul are wavering under the pressure of being inches from seeing Public Enemy. Matthew insists that they go to the concert, but the two cannot bring themselves to abandon him. Resigned to their predicament, they make their way home. Peter and Paul congregate while Matthew paces up and down in a fit of temper. When he accidentally bumps into a man walking by and knocks him down, the friends apologetically rush to help the man to his feet and Matthew discovers a single Public Enemy concert ticket that has fallen out of the strangers' pocket.