Hmmm. Like most football fans we’ve happened on the tale of Cass Pennant, self-styled hooliganist, before. While his contributions to such classy telly productions as Macintyre’s Toughest Towns: Portsmouth and Lee Sharpe’s International Hooligans’ Hall of Shame are undeniably entertaining, it’s difficult to imagine this filmed hagiography is the whole truth and nothing but.
No matter. It works just fine within The Football Factory milieu. A former general with West Ham’s notorious InterCity Firm, Cass’ story follows a trajectory that’s not entirely dissimilar to fictionalised West Ham hooligan dramas like Green Street. Adopted from an orphanage by a tough-as-old-boots Blitz surviving mother and an elderly disinterested father, the young Anglo-Jamaican ( played by Kaluuya, then Anozie) faces years of racial abuse until, during his teens, he hooks up with the Bigger Boys of the ICF. It takes the love of a good woman and a stint in porridge for Cass to renounce the joys of pummelling the Toon Army but, in the way of these things, his old life eventually catches up with him.
Debut director Jon S. Baird does enough to keep us engaged. The racial dimension puts an interesting spin on the formula. The violence is appropriately thrilling and nauseating in equal measure. But it’s the cast that ultimately makes this worthwhile, particularly Nonso Anozie who has presence, acting chops and the makings of a proper movie star.