Well, it's meant to be disturbing. It's made in the vein of "social realism", or "kitchen sink dramas", which is a 1960s genre of British film and TV (made by the likes of Ken Loach and Mike Leigh), intended to be far-from-flashy, naturalistic social commentaries that the working class can relate to. Meadows sets it in the 80s, when he was growing up himself (the script is fictional, but borrows from his own adolescence), but it has much political resonance in today's climate, of fathers not returning from war, of disillusioned youths, of issues such as immigration, and the racial tensions that it may bring about.

Yeah, Thomas Turgoose is great - he was too young to even attend the film's premiere. Stephen Graham (previously seen in Snatch) steals the show, for me.


Could you be more specific? Did you find it slow at times?

I find Meadows very much influenced by Scorsese (and the aforementioned British directors), but he's not as good a storyteller; whenever the narrative hits a dead-end, he'll cut to a montage of archive footage of 80s popular culture, to overcome the emotional stance of the film that's become problematic. Storytelling isn't his strongest asset; he's at his best when portraying power relations between men, when prides and egos are threatened in the same room as one another. There's some incredibly tense stuff in his films; from this film alone: the raid on the corner shop ("I will slay you now you Paki [BadWord]"), the scene between Combo and Lol in the car (thought he was going to flip!), when Combo stops the car after Pukey questions the whole nationalism thing, the climactic turn between Combo and Milky ("What makes a good dad, then?").

Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'd definitely see Dead Man's Shoes next (and soon), which is a simpler film (less ambitious), but possibly better. I think you'll like it more.