Shane Meadows, the ace writer-director behind Twenty Four Seven, A Room For Romeo Brass and Dead Man’s Shoes hasn’t steered us wrong yet, and This Is England, a poignant ‘80s bildungsroman, is almost certainly his best work to date.
Based on the Burton auteur’s own childhood, the film stars remarkable newcomer Thomas Turgoose as Shaun, a lonely 12-year-old whose dad has recently died in the Falklands War. Society eventually opens up for the poor lad in the form of a friendly neighbourhood skinhead gang. Ditching the flares his mammy makes him wear in favour of Doc Martens, young Shaun discovers the joys of trashy girls, late night parties and youthful whimsy. Jollied along by the sounds of Toots And The Maytals, the summer holidays couldn’t be better, until the Bigger Boys move in peddling dodgy National Front dogma.
It’s a simple plot in a modest kitchen sink setting, but Mr. Meadows spins it into an epic. The evolution of the skinhead from ska peacenik to psychopathic hate-monger is duly noted.
But for all the social upheaval, Thatcher’s Britain has rarely seemed more attractive. Kids wear pots and pans for a war game that might have been devised by prominent Dadaists. And if you don’t think Shaun’s visit to the shoe shop with his mum is comedy gold then you probably need a CAT scan. (“These are from London”, says the shop girl in hushed tones, as she takes out the least cool boots ever made.)