This Is England (2006)

Shane Meadows continues to justify his tag as the British Martin Scorsese with this riveting portrayal of life in Thatchers Britain circa 1983.

Thomas Turgoose plays Shaun, a 12 year old boy a troubled and alienated boy who is bullied at school. Shaun's father has recently been killed fighting in the Falklands War.

Finding friendship with a gang of jovial and older skinheads, Shaun gradually becomes accepted and discovers a world of Ben Sherman shirts, Doc Martins, Parties and girls.

The return of Combo (Stephen Graham), an older more extreme skinhead threatens to tear the group apart and Shaun believing he has found a suitable role model begins to drift into a more dangerous and radical lifestyle.

Dead Mans Shoes is one of my personal favourite movies of the 21st century, it is a raw and unflinching film depicting life at the bottom end of British society, This Is England carries on this theme but moves the action back 20 years.

An astonishingly understated performance by Turgoose matched by a fierce (and almost sympathetic) one by Graham is the anchor of this gripping movie. In fact all the performances are top drawer and at times you almost believe you are watching a documentary.

Meadows seems to have been meticulous with the wardrobe and the sets and one of my impressions was of actually watching a film made in 1983 (although with very high production standards).

Grahams racist, almost psychotic character is not a stereotype, hes real in a brutal and raw way and he reflects a violent and selfish British society that existed in the early eighties.

The racist overtones are handled well and we are subject to a look at what life was really like for Black and Asian people in Britain at this time.

I have seen this film likened to American History X on some Websites which I think is nonsense, the racism card is only a small part of This is England whereas in x its the whole story.

This Is England is essentially a coming of age movie, a dark, grim, relentless and at times very funny film that also offers a little bit of hope, Woody's skinhead gang look like serious troublemakers but in actual fact are genuinely nice people. They just happen to be young social outcasts looking to survive with nothing to look forward to but a bleak future.

Combo although morally repugnant almost finds redemption at the end and he is haunted by the life he has not had and the life he never will( his scene with Lol in the car borders on the heartbreaking).

Meadows has delivered the goods again, his direction is faultless and the soundtrack is brilliant. (although one of my only quibbles concerns a few to many Reservoir Dogs type procession shots).

This is England is without a doubt one of the best movies of the year and its nice to see a British director sticking to his guns and proving that this country can provide more than Period and costume dramas and East end gangster flicks (Guy Ritchie, take note).

The Top 20 Films Of The 21st Century (so far)

I first set out to compile a top ten list of MY favourite movies of the noughties and realised 10 couldn't’ really cover it, so here it is, the top 20, even now I regret the omission of any Far East Horror Movies, Oldboy, Amelie, You, Me and Everyone we know, A Very Long Engagement, The Beach, Spiderman 2, Catch Me If You can, Monsters Ball, Narc, Final Destination (the first and sequel), Jeepers Creepers (but not the terrible sequel) and more surprisingly, House Of 1000 Corpses which had some terrible reviews but had a director who experimented with nearly every scene he shot and totally refused to follow the teen friendly horror route. I make no excuses for featuring 4 End of the world movies, 3 of which are zombie movies as these are my two favourite Genres (I couldn't really justify including Resident Evil Apocalypse, which was much better than the reviews but hardly a great film).

In order of favourites,

(1) The Aviator (2004) A masterpiece, a top director who’s been making quality films for over 30 years uses new tricks, a fantastic (true) story and an amazing performance from almost certainly the best and most charismatic actor in the world at the moment.

(2) City Of God (2002) Very very powerful movie works simply because it looks so real. The IMDB “(the bible”) lists this film as the 15th best ever of all time and they are rarely wrong. Makes Goodfellas look like an episode of the good life.

(3) Kill Bill Vol 1/Kill Bill Vol 2 (2003/2004) Tarentino is a genius, love him or loathe him, no one can touch him for sheer brilliant storytelling, Vol 1 is an adrenaline rush, Vol 2 is classy melodrama.

(4) Dead Mans Shoes (2004) Raw, brutal and uncompromising revenge movie with some of the best acting you will ever see. Paddy Considine is unbelievable. When on form the British make the best films in the world.

(5) Shaun Of The Dead (2004) A homage (not a spoof), which is very funny, very tense and at times extremely heartbreaking, made by people who genuinely love their source material.

(6) Birth (2004) None of the Oscar winners for best picture in the last five years have had a spark of originality about them. This has it in spades, very controversial, very brave and always beautiful to watch.

(7) The Descent (2005) One of the most possible pants wetting movies you will ever see, definitely the most squirming in your seat film of the 21st Century.

(8) Battle Royale (2000) A movie Hollywood would never touch, an all action thought provoking classic only the Japanese could make.

(9) Secretary (2002) A genuinely original love story between two very strange but extremely likable people.

(10) Switchblade Romance (2003) The French tackle splatter movies and do it with style and panache. The most ludicrously over the top twist in movie history too. What is there not to like?

(11) 28 Days Later (2002) A raw British horror movie that pulls no punches. A very good director uses every trick in the book to make a relatively low budget flick look better than a thousand Matrix wannabees put together.

(12)Donnie Darko (2001) Weird and wonderful. A cult movie if ever I’ve seen one. Great ensemble cast too with a star making performance from Jake Gyllenhall.

(13)My Summer Of Love (2004) Very classy drama that the BBC and Channel 4 used to do in their sleep before their obsession with reality TV. Paddy Considine, the new De Niro? No, he’s better.

(14)Dog Soldiers (2002) All out horror action movie from the director of the Descent. Again this is a perfect example of how to make a movie on a tight budget.

(15)Chopper (2000) The Australians used to make a lot of good movies, not so much these days. This is an excellent Prison movie that becomes a searing crime drama. Eric Bana is awesome in this.

(16)Dawn Of The Dead (2004) The original is possibly the best Horror movie of all time. The best compliment I can pay this re-make is that’s its on a par with the 1978 movie.

(17)Sideways (2004) I shouldn't like this movie about two 40 something wasters who like wine but I do. It’s a great slice of Americana.

(18)The Day after Tomorrow (2004) Cracking adventure yarn with some of the finest special effects ever put on film. How true to life could this movie actually be?

(19)8 Mile (2002) Eminem is fantastic in an extremely well written gritty drama that explores the bottom end of American society.

(20) Children Of Men (2006) Welcome to a real and raw action thriller with proper actors and Micheal Caine as an ex hippy, it doesn't get any better than that.

http://www.imdb.com/