This Is England (2006)
Average Rating: 7.7/10
Reviews Counted: 90
Fresh: 84 | Rotten: 6
A moving coming-of-age tale that captures the despair among England's working-class youth in the 1980s.
Average Rating: 7.6/10
Critic Reviews: 29
Fresh: 27 | Rotten: 2
A moving coming-of-age tale that captures the despair among England's working-class youth in the 1980s.
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Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 52,771
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Movie Info
British filmmaker Shane Meadows looks back at his own youth in this semi-autobiographical comedy drama that examines skinhead culture in the U.K. It's the summer of 1983, and Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) is a 12-year-old boy edging into adolescence without a father, his dad having lost his life the year before in the Falkland Islands War. A gang of skinheads -- tough guys in their teens and early twenties who shave their heads, wear Ben Sherman polo shirts, and Dr. Martens boots, and listen to ska
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Cast
-
Thomas Turgoose
Shaun -
Stephen Graham
Combo -
Jo Hartley
Cynth -
Andrew Shim
Milky -
Vicky McClure
Lol -
Joe Gilgun
Woody -
Rosamund Hanson
Smell -
Andrew Ellis
Gadget -
Perry Benson
Meggy -
George Newton
Banjo -
Frank Harper
Lenny -
Jack O'Connell
Pukey Nicholls -
Kriss Dosanjh
Mr. Sandhu -
-
Chanel Cresswell
Kelly -
Danielle Watson
Trev -
Sophie Ellerby
Pob -
Hannah Walters
Shoe Shop Assistant -
Michael Socha
Bully -
Dave Laws
Mr. Dudley -
Aisling Loftus
Abigail Pollock -
Joe Sentence
Adam Waghorn -
Shane Meadows
Chip Shop Owner -
Pamela Cundell
Gadget's Nan -
Elliot Brown-Walters
Poor Mate 1 -
Ian Smith
Teacher -
Seamus O'Neill
DJ Dave D -
Dave Blant
Teacher 1 -
Ladene Hall
Miss Shaw -
Harold Gould
Mr. Thacker -
Betty Gould
Mrs. Thacker -
Stuart Wolfenden
Jaybo -
Georgia Groome
Abigail's Friend -
Gabriel Jennings
Adam's Friend -
Matthew Blamires
Teasing Kid -
James Burrows
Teasing Kid -
Harpal Hayer
Football Kid -
Terry Haywood
Football Kid -
Nimesh Jami
Football Kid
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All Critics (93) | Top Critics (30) | Fresh (89) | Rotten (6) | DVD (15)
How sad and predictable is the fate of those who counsel violence as a means to an end. And yet how poignant it all seems when viewed through Shane Meadows' thoughtful lens.
Top CriticYou wouldn't think a film about a group of British skinheads during the early 1980s could be a sweet, nostalgic coming-of-age period piece, but that's the surprise of the authentic, fresh and utterly relevant This Is England.
Its tough but moving neo-realist approach make it one of the better British films of recent times.
It may be the best work to date from the talented 34-year-old writer-director of Twenty Four Seven (1997).
A drama that's so potent and persuasive yet also natural and intimate that it almost has the heft of a documentary.
A movie about the allure of groupthink and how the warm comfort of being surrounded by peers wilts all sense of balance.
It is the war within him--and by extension, within the minds of many embittered, working class young men left behind in Thatcher's England--that Meadows's film most strikingly portrays.
Steeped in the raw mix of ska and punk sound as expression of the youth alienation and misguided rage of those tumultuous times, an alarming voice of the surging army of jobless youth back then dubbed 'no hopers.'
A rowdy but oddly affectionate gang of local skinhead upstart eccentrics are into generally minor mischief, but as social crisis deepens, so does the skinhead subculture turn a darker corner.
This is the film that Meadows' deceptively casual, hands-in-its-pockets, neighbourhood storytelling has led up to. A tale of one boy's summer becomes a majestic, unromantic look back at 1980s Britain. With some lovely deleted scenes . . . followed by two
Stephen Graham delivers a bravura performance as the brooding, mesmerizing Combo, clearly channeling Russell Crowe in Romper Stomper.
This portrait of identity in Thatcher's Britain vividly recreates the youth culture of Ben Sherman shirts and Doc Martens boots.
Riveting.
Meadows obviously knows the working class neighborhoods that he depicts. There's a grit and honesty to his film as he chronicles the mundane details of these kids' lives.
An intelligent, spare, mean-streets sort of story, This Is England features superb performances...
Audience Reviews for This Is England
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- Shaun: You look stupid.
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- Woody: You look absolutely sterling mate!
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Foreign Titles
- Esto es Inglaterra (ES)
Obviously, the skins do have some of the best music which helps any film. Toots rules.