A very interesting movie. That's the best way to describe This Is England. The movie is about a troubled young kid who finds refuge from his problems when he befriends a gang of skin heads. Everything is on the up and up until he meets an extremly nationalistic skinhead named Combo who takes the young boy, named Shaun, under his wing. Things begin to fall apart from there as racial issues enter Shaun's life. Combo's hatemongering leads to an ultimate act of violence and Shaun realizes what he has become.This movie has recieved several international awards including the Best Newcomer award in the Bitish Independent Film Festival, which is where the film is from (if you couldn't tell from the title). This film will make you feel. It will make you feel happy, sad, angry, and a good many other emotions. The first half of the movie is just about Shaun's happy-go-lucky adventures with his new "family" and the second half deals with the very real issue of nationalism and immigration in England during the 1980's. I wasn't quite sure how I felt about the movie after I saw it, but I've decided that I really like it. Like I said, it's very interesting and quite different from most movies. I'm not entierly sure what genre this would fall under. If I had to call it anything, I would have to say it's a good example of realism. Check out the trailer below and see if it looks interesting to you.
