I went to see Shane Meadows's new film: THIS IS ENGLAND at Queens Film Theatre in Belfast last night and it blew me clear away. I can't think of anything else today except getting back to see it again. It's totally rare for me to feel like this. It wasn't just the fantastic social relics of the 1980s that jerked me (crimped hair, cola cubes, Margaret Thatcher's stridulent whine, patterned carpets, perms, grim housing estates, etc.) the main character; a lonely 12-year-old Shaun (Thomas Turgoose, 14 in real life) is so incredible that I can honestly say I've never ever seen a performance like it in my life. If he doesn't get an award - or several - I'll be severely pissed off.
Basically, Shaun seeks solace and friendship in the company of a gang of skinheads not long after the death of his Dad in the Falklands War. It starts with horrific images of the war and newsreel footage from that time - horrific in a different sense to now as it's not all blood and guts and digital filming - more emphasis on quiet horror; squaddies smoking cigarettes while dumping dead bodies on an airfield to be flown back to English soil, and so on. The lie that was sold to them about what it means to be English, the consequential beefing up of nationalism & the National Front that followed.
The plot is basically that Combo (Stephen Graham) returns from jail secreting the stench of combative racism, which can't quite mask the whiff of something lost and very sad. He's in love with his ex-mate's> girlfriend...eventually plucks up the courage to tell her, which normally hard men don't do, apparently. "It was a horrible night," she says to him, "I was just 16 and pissed off my head". For three years in prison it's all he thought of; before his heart turned to worms. Not quite sure if he was supposed to have been abused, but he defo came from an 'absent father' household (big thing in 1980s' Britain). He knows how to exploit young minds that are looking for answers, snooping around grim England for a sense of self, you get the idea.
Of course there is violence (some of this I did find a bit 'put on'... the confrontation with the local 'Paki' shop owner, for instance, wasn't particularly real or reasonable)...but there is also a lot of accidental humour and most importantly; raw emotion. Shaun and Combo steal the show. The script is absolutely stunning; hilarious from the off but it's not that type of saccharine piss take that you so often see on British sitcoms now, even the most hard-boiled ones. Shaun manages to nab a girlfriend "way taller" than him, she's wonderfully dippy, Smell (Rosamund Hanson), who just looks crazy and talks shit, like teenagers do... Shaun gives her a sloppy wet kiss at one point in the back garden of a council house and cos he's so tiny and gorgeous and cute and real, it genuinely brings you back to that moment in your own life. She berates him for not sucking her tits; they have a bona fide conversation about his teenage concerns. He is just adorable.
There is one scene that is so first class that I know it will become legendary. They shave Shaun's head, dickie him up in a Ben Sherman shirt, some Dr Martin's boots, braces, etc. After weeks of partying, frolicking, talking, being brainwashed, getting stoned, this scene is simply the small tight-knit gang turning a corner into an alley-way and strutting along in slow motion... Shaun is angry and proud and beautiful in his crombie, Combo has an unmistakable hard-on bulging from his bleached jeans...the impact of this 6 second walk amplifies everything that shone of originality & personality in 1980s youth culture.
It moved me so much because I remember clearly from my own life how powerful the skinhead girls were, how enraged and splenetic the blokes were. I was a Mod for years throughout my teens, spent most of my time drinking with skinheads and scooterists, weekends away on scooter rallies not giving a fuck. There were no mobile phones, wanker game stations or web-based mania to distract you from teenage resolve. And just to add in another head-mash... the film that captures a young boy's grief at losing a parent is mirrored in real life as This Is England is dedicated to Shaun's real mother, Sharon, who tragically died of a terminal illness before the film was complete. She never got to see the performance of her little son's life. I left the cinema hardly able to breathe. You will not see a more powerful or provocative film this year. Trust me.
Basically, Shaun seeks solace and friendship in the company of a gang of skinheads not long after the death of his Dad in the Falklands War. It starts with horrific images of the war and newsreel footage from that time - horrific in a different sense to now as it's not all blood and guts and digital filming - more emphasis on quiet horror; squaddies smoking cigarettes while dumping dead bodies on an airfield to be flown back to English soil, and so on. The lie that was sold to them about what it means to be English, the consequential beefing up of nationalism & the National Front that followed.
The plot is basically that Combo (Stephen Graham) returns from jail secreting the stench of combative racism, which can't quite mask the whiff of something lost and very sad. He's in love with his ex-mate's> girlfriend...eventually plucks up the courage to tell her, which normally hard men don't do, apparently. "It was a horrible night," she says to him, "I was just 16 and pissed off my head". For three years in prison it's all he thought of; before his heart turned to worms. Not quite sure if he was supposed to have been abused, but he defo came from an 'absent father' household (big thing in 1980s' Britain). He knows how to exploit young minds that are looking for answers, snooping around grim England for a sense of self, you get the idea.
Of course there is violence (some of this I did find a bit 'put on'... the confrontation with the local 'Paki' shop owner, for instance, wasn't particularly real or reasonable)...but there is also a lot of accidental humour and most importantly; raw emotion. Shaun and Combo steal the show. The script is absolutely stunning; hilarious from the off but it's not that type of saccharine piss take that you so often see on British sitcoms now, even the most hard-boiled ones. Shaun manages to nab a girlfriend "way taller" than him, she's wonderfully dippy, Smell (Rosamund Hanson), who just looks crazy and talks shit, like teenagers do... Shaun gives her a sloppy wet kiss at one point in the back garden of a council house and cos he's so tiny and gorgeous and cute and real, it genuinely brings you back to that moment in your own life. She berates him for not sucking her tits; they have a bona fide conversation about his teenage concerns. He is just adorable.
There is one scene that is so first class that I know it will become legendary. They shave Shaun's head, dickie him up in a Ben Sherman shirt, some Dr Martin's boots, braces, etc. After weeks of partying, frolicking, talking, being brainwashed, getting stoned, this scene is simply the small tight-knit gang turning a corner into an alley-way and strutting along in slow motion... Shaun is angry and proud and beautiful in his crombie, Combo has an unmistakable hard-on bulging from his bleached jeans...the impact of this 6 second walk amplifies everything that shone of originality & personality in 1980s youth culture.
It moved me so much because I remember clearly from my own life how powerful the skinhead girls were, how enraged and splenetic the blokes were. I was a Mod for years throughout my teens, spent most of my time drinking with skinheads and scooterists, weekends away on scooter rallies not giving a fuck. There were no mobile phones, wanker game stations or web-based mania to distract you from teenage resolve. And just to add in another head-mash... the film that captures a young boy's grief at losing a parent is mirrored in real life as This Is England is dedicated to Shaun's real mother, Sharon, who tragically died of a terminal illness before the film was complete. She never got to see the performance of her little son's life. I left the cinema hardly able to breathe. You will not see a more powerful or provocative film this year. Trust me.
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