READ MORE: This Is England interview: Shane Meadows
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PREMIERE.COM'S REVIEW (posted 7/19/2007)

The minute you hear the word "skinheads," a lot of clear and not very pleasant images immediately come to mind, mostly influenced by past films such as Romper Stomper or American History X. To say that Shane Meadows's This Is England presents a more sympathetic view is not to say it defends or glorifies skinheads. It's more interested in how messy and unclear real life tends to be. Told in a rough, unglamorous style, This Is England is funny, sad, terrifying, and, most of all, utterly engrossing.

Acting novice Turgoose, a tough-talking 12-year-old from the streets who looks about eight, seems to have been cast not so much for his chops (which he proves to have) but more for the fact that he's the real deal. Turgoose never comes across like he's acting. He's a kid reacting to circumstances the way a kid actually would: sometimes angrily, sometimes awkwardly, sometimes foolishly, sometimes hilariously. Turgoose plays Shaun, a quiet, withdrawn loner whose father was killed in the Falklands War (the film takes place in 1983, but Meadows ensures that the parallels to the Iraq War go unmissed). After getting picked on at school, he runs into a surprisingly amiable pack of punks and is instantly taken under the wing of the charismatic Woody (Gilgun). What threatens to be a case of wolves in sheep's clothing — Woody couldn't be the nice guy he seems, right? — actually never materializes. Turns out Woody and the guys are fun and cool, even downright polite and genuinely apologetic when Shaun's mother takes them to task for shaving Shaun's head. They are skinheads in fashion only, it seems, more interested in being outsiders than militants. Darker elements enter the story in the form of recently imprisoned Combo (Graham), an angry, violent man who wrests Shaun out from under Woody's wing and begins filling his head with a more dangerous philosophy.

Once again, Meadows doesn't let the story play out as expected. Not just knee-jerk racists (in fact, one of the crew, Milky, is Jamaican), Combo's followers are vehemently anti-immigrant, believing that the influx of people from other countries (mostly Pakistan) is somehow "stealing" the country from "true Englishmen." They profess to accept all races as long as they are hard working and not living off of government welfare — something Milky (and the audience) accepts with more than a few grains of skepticism. From the minute Combo steps onscreen, it's clear that the man and his preaching can and will end in violence, but it's a credit to both writer-director Meadows and Graham that the act of rage that eventually does occur once Combo reaches his breaking point is driven not by ideology but by the impotent anger of a sad, lost little man. Combo's lashing out is heartbreaking and infuriating at the same time, as is Shaun's realization that his own feelings of loss and anger around his father's death have been so thoroughly taken advantage of by Combo.

Graham, mostly known in America for a comedic sidekick role in Guy Ritchie's Snatch, is absolutely captivating, refusing to let Combo become a 2-D skinhead villain. He is a bad man, no question, but he is also as confused and ignorant as the young kids he bosses around.

This Is England may be best summed up as a "coming-of-age" story that puts aside the clichéd baggage often carried by the description and ultimately ends up being moving, genuinely funny, thought-provoking, and highly recommended.

— Eric Alt