A genuine masterpiece. Director Shane Meadows channels Ken Loach and Sergio Leone with a touch of Mad Max, an effortless genre- blend that feels like the most natural thing in the world. Paddy Considine’s central performance is terrifying but still somehow sympathetic, dead- eyed and dedicated but still wracked with a very personal anguish, displaying a level of control reminiscent of Pacino in the 70’s, the absolute inhabitation of an unforgiving character. The supporting players barely even seem to be acting, you get the feeling they really live like this; the improvisational nature of many scenes serving to heighten the horror of what follows. The photography is beautiful, the contrasted urban- rural landscape frighteningly familiar to those of us who grew up in it. All in all, the finest British film of the century so far.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
26 Apr 2006 10:36 AM | Submit Comment