A very good movie

Since I kept hearing good things about Shane Meadows, I was definitely eager to check his work. Eventually, I really got lucky to start with one of his best movies and I was certainly not disappointed. Indeed, he managed to set his movie in a specific historical time and place (England in the 80’s) and he also managed to create some fascinating characters to watch. Basically, it shows how dreary the life was for some people in England during that time (is it really any better nowadays?) and how slowly some of them moved towards the National Front and their extreme right wing ideas. This movie displayed also an interesting notion which I wasn’t aware about those skinheads. Indeed, apparently, the skinheads were at first more about a specific lifestyle (music, clothing, haircuts,…) than some actual ideology but, at some point, when some of them needed a goal, a purpose, they shifted towards right-wing politics and, above all, violence towards minorities. However, this flick was not just about history and it also dealt with some very interesting 3 dimensional characters. I mean, instead of showing us some skinheads breaking havoc, they displayed that they had a very strong sense of community but also that they didn’t have much purpose and that they were terribly confused. The only critic I have is that they tried to add a romantic sub-plot involving Combo, it didn’t work out really well but that wasn’t a deal breaker. To conclude, it is a heartbreaking but fascinating picture and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

8/10