this is....a fucking great film

Just finished watching Shane Meadows' film This Is England and I can't recommend it enough. Besides being a semi-autobiographical portrait of the writer/director's childhood, it also reflects the beginnings of the skinhead movement in Thatcher's England, as the main character, Sean, left rather directionless and, to some extent, disenchanted with his life after the death of his father in the Falkland War, falls in with a group of rather harmless, if not loving skinheads who take them under their wing. As the gang is corrupted by newer, more radical nationalistic ideals, things of course take a turn for the worse, and the film paints a compelling, upsetting, and somewhat sympathetic picture of the movement that blows other such movies - Romper Stomper and American History X come to mind - out of the water. Beautifully filmed, impeccably acted, yet still seemingly small in scope, This Is England embodies everything great about British filmmaking. Plus one of the guys is totally hot.

Tall one in the back right - he normally has really shaggy hair, but he's much hotter as a skinhead. Must be the tight jeans. In other news, I think I'm becoming a caricature of myself. Just watch the trailer, and then the movie. I'm off to watch what's sure to be a highly disappointing quasi-season finale of Heroes.