Being from Nottingham myself, I sort of feel duty-bound to watch Shane Meadows' films. Usually they don't disappoint. Usually.
The reason I see this film as an attempt at comedy is that I can't really see what else it could be. I can't see any kind of message contained in this film, and the premise of the film frankly borders on the preposterous. Too little about the protagonist's background is divulged for the audience to take him seriously. He is essentially a homeless child on the loose in London, though a seemingly compassionate women he meets with on a train and then later in a café feels no need to report this fact to anyone. What drives the film then is the comic spectacle of the unlikely relationship that develops between young Tomo and a Polish immigrant he meets. Sure, this has its moments, but I don't really think that comedy is Meadows' forte.
The black and white photography is equally irritating. Meadows could have saved himself bother by just popping up at the start of the film and announcing "this is more 'indie' than This is England, you know...". Once he'd got that off his chest then maybe we could have enjoyed the film in colour...
I'm looking for positives here, I really am, but this film is really lacking. It lacks plausibility. It lacks originality (it's relatively similar to This is England). And it lacks run-time: 70 minutes and no discernible 'ending' - you may well feel like heading back to the ticket booth and asking for a refund afterwards.
Not an unmitigated disaster, but watch Shane's other films first.
The reason I see this film as an attempt at comedy is that I can't really see what else it could be. I can't see any kind of message contained in this film, and the premise of the film frankly borders on the preposterous. Too little about the protagonist's background is divulged for the audience to take him seriously. He is essentially a homeless child on the loose in London, though a seemingly compassionate women he meets with on a train and then later in a café feels no need to report this fact to anyone. What drives the film then is the comic spectacle of the unlikely relationship that develops between young Tomo and a Polish immigrant he meets. Sure, this has its moments, but I don't really think that comedy is Meadows' forte.
The black and white photography is equally irritating. Meadows could have saved himself bother by just popping up at the start of the film and announcing "this is more 'indie' than This is England, you know...". Once he'd got that off his chest then maybe we could have enjoyed the film in colour...
I'm looking for positives here, I really am, but this film is really lacking. It lacks plausibility. It lacks originality (it's relatively similar to This is England). And it lacks run-time: 70 minutes and no discernible 'ending' - you may well feel like heading back to the ticket booth and asking for a refund afterwards.
Not an unmitigated disaster, but watch Shane's other films first.