Review: This Is England

Review: This Is England (Shane Meadows, 2006, UK).

One of the most critically acclaimed films from the UK in quite some time, This Is England has arrived on a wave of hype. A successful premiere at the London Film Festival (I have to go this year), an official selection at the Rome Film Festival, and a multitude of enthusiastic reviews has made this a truly must-see movie, epsecially so as this will be the last less crowd-pleasing film I see before the blockbuster season kicks in, a season I become rather wrapped up in. Will it make me long for it after the Bourne - Spider-Man - Pirates - Simpsons - Transformers hits I will be mainlining over the next few months?
Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) is on his last day of term when everything changes for him. After getting in a fight with an older boy, he encouters a gang of lads lead by Woody (Joseph Gilgun) and Milky (Andrew Shim). He soon starts hanging around with them and their friends and they start a summer where Shaun will experience real friendship and some things older boys experience. Things take a turn when Woody's friend Combo (Stephen Graham) is released from prison and starts to exert his influence over not only Woody's gang but also Shaun.
This Is England wears its heart on its sleave right from the start, shots of Roland Rat and Knight Rider show that we are in the 1980's and judging from this, a nostalgia trip. This changes quickly when we are shown shots of the Falkland's, an interesting war in English history to say the least. Its relevance proves to be one of the key points in determining the character's motivations and the events which will follow. We are then introduced to Shaun as a sweary but good boy who is sick of being picked on. His interactions with Woody and his gang are at first fun-filled. They parade through deserted homes and trahs them in a way which would be commonplace to many children and teenagers, the want for destruction being an element in boys throughout time. They have a great time and even when there is tension, it is sorted quickly. This juvenile behaviour is not just for the boys but for the girls also. They shave Shaun's hair as an initiation of sorts, let him smoke weed and... let him do stuff (well one of them does). All this childishness is entirely diminished in one scene, the introduction of Combo. He brings with him the resentful feeling sburning inside many people at that time and indeed now. The blaming of those who are different for all the problems in their lives, even if the reasons why are rather absurd. His reasons indeed maybe childish but his hate and his conviction are all adult. Combo's speech and the use of a weak spot in Shaun's life is enough to convince members of Woody's gang to follow him into this path into hate. The rite of passage is brought into full ber by Combo, he takes Shaun to a National Front meeting which Shaun doesn't seem to understand, he cojoles Shaun into intimidating some lads playing football and to traumatise a shop owner. All this makes Shaun feel powerful but the climatic act brings into focus just how young Shaun really is and just how wrong he was to trust in this particular father figure.
All of this is done in an entirely believeable way and this is a sill that Shane Meadows excels in. When he does it, he produces films like A Room For Romeo Brass and Dead Man's Shoes. When he doesn't, we get Once Upon A Time In The Midlands. Here, he is truly on the top of his game. Everything about this film feels entirely natural. Woody and Milky feel like the type of guys who would take a lad under their wing. Shaun feels like he would be able to handle himself in these situations and truly seems older than he is. Combo feels like a full-on portrayal of a man who has been influenced by the wrong people and really is an example of where Shaun could be going. The scene where Shaun wants to get a particular type of shoe feels like any child you see in a shoe shop all the time. The ending, while predictable feels like the kind of thing that will happen when a pressure cooker like Combo explodes. The only thing that does feel false is the relationship between Shaun and Smell feels very false. The sight of this kid and a obviously older girl to me was very very funny (Donna couldn't look though), but their rleationship strikes an off-chord boy's fantasy version of what is quite a realist take on England at that time, and maybe now.
The cast are uniformly amazing. Thomas Turgoose is a little revelation as Shaun. His attitude, his way with words, and his vunerability are soemthing that will take something for him to beat in later life. Stephen Graham as born to play his role, his wide-eyed psychopathic portrayal feels like soemthing he has been builiding up to for a long time and what could have been a one-dimesional perfomance becomes a fully realised character through his force alone. The others all do great jobs and I want to mention the guy with the galsses who joins Combo's gang. I don't know who he is but his intimidating of the lads playing football is a depressing image which I will take with me for a long time.
It feels awful of me to say that in my opinion this is not the best Brit film of the year. Meadows has done a great job in capturing both a realist portrayal of what the 1980's was like and a chilling look at where England could be going, and he should be applauded for doing as much. However, in terms of pure enjoyment, Sunshine and Hot Fuzz eclipse it completely. I will say this however, I respect This Is England far more for what it has to say. It is a film I ill revisit time and time again. I suppose I am just too shallow! Please do go see it though, it deserves to be seen by as many people as possible, and with its reclassification by the Bristol City Council to 15 (bravo by the way), any schoolchild should see it as both a fun trip, and a good lesson.

Back during the week with some more DVD reviews and then on Saturday my review will be up for my most anticipated movie of the summer, Spider-Man 3!! Anyone who gets my second and third wins a prize. Seriously, emails to ian-loring@hotmail.co.uk, decent prize too!! They have to be the right order by the way.

Ian out.