This Is England
2006
***
Director: Shane Meadows
Cast: Thomas Turgoose, Joe Gilgun, Andrew Shim, Vicky McClure, Stephen Graham, Rosamund Hanson, Andrew Ellis, Jo Hartley
Shaun is a fatherless, bullied 12-year-old who joins the skinheads. Just when he finally feels accepted, an ex-convict rejoins the group and splits it with his nationalistic agenda. Shane Meadows doesn't vilify the skinhead culture or his characters in this partly autobiographical story of growing up in Britain in 1983. His kitchen sink drama is refreshingly ambivalent, but it predictably heads towards a violent climax. Thomas Turgoose is a very natural child actor and Stephen Graham is menacing as the racist leader, but the scariest character by far is Shaun's thoroughly oblivious mother.
