A very good movie

How come it took me so long to discover Shane Meadows?!? I just saw ‘ This is England’ a few weeks back and I found it pretty amazing and this time again, Mr Meadows quite blew me away. This flick is a really different beast though. First of all, I was impressed by the directing and cinematography. Indeed, there were some simple shots but so perfectly composed, it was just really beautiful to behold. Then, you have the movie itself. It must be one of the most original and heartbreaking thrillers I have seen in a while. Even though I might enjoy a Hollywood thriller from time to time, they never really impress me because they are usually based on some cheap theatrics. Even the twist at the end, which is something that always annoys me to death, worked really well here because it was not set there just to give one last surprise look on the viewers face, it was set there to underline, reinforce the strength of this tale and it worked like a charm. The funny thing is that I usually don’t care about those vengeance flicks because I really don’t like the ideas they preach (An eye for eye, violence is fine as long as you are avenging your loved ones,….) but I really appreciated the way they treated this genre here. There is absolutely no joy here, no catharsis, just mayhem, madness and suffering, even at the end. To conclude, after only watching 2 of his movies, Shane Meadows is quickly becoming one of my favorite British directors, this movie is heartbreaking, unsettling but also really good and it is definitely worth a look.

8/10