This Is England
Originally uploaded by bossk
Saw Shane Meadow's latest bit of brilliance in the week. Very powerful. Really heartening to see 'British Cinema' worthy of the title.
Does a very good job of drawing you into the warmth and friendship of the group of Skins as led by funny charming Woody. Then leaving you feeling like you've had a 9hole emotional kicking as the warmth mutates into Combo's vicious racism.
Some great mash ups of imagery and film clips to set the nostalgia nodes buzzing and help evoke 80s smalltown East Midlands. Itself conjured up from various bits of Lenton, St Anns, the Lincolnshire countryside and a brilliantly used East Coast beachscape that Shaun seems to use to find / define himself and make decisions. "Maggie is a twat' graff gets the overall "recreate the 80s" award.
It's a great exploration of proximity. The multicultural hard knocks roots of skin culture starting to entwine with conflicting arguments of racialised Nationalism and the 'people's army' thug culture of the NF. The most powerful scene literally embodies this. Trapped in the confines of Combo's flat, Milky starts to feel a sense of camaraderie with Combo and his old skool ska roots. For Combo, trying to resolve his multicultural sense of cultural connectedness with the emergent Nationalism leads to a mental meltdown and the violent apex of the film. Conflicting discourse literally trapped in space.
