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Under discussion:

This is England  (2007)

Last night I watched a screener of This is England, Shane Meadows’ semi-autobiographical feature about growing up skinhead in Thatcher-era England. Suffice it to say, I was somewhat blown away. I’ll write more after I’ve fully mulled, but because the film opens today at the IFC Center here in New York, I wanted to do a round-up of what a few other critics are saying. The film is currently set to expand to at least 12 additional cities through September.

“Period specificities aside, the film illustrates an aspect of adolescence I’ve rarely seen better explored: how subculture membership can foster a sense of belonging in young people unsuited to the school-sponsored avenues of self-identification, or can get a kid laid who’d otherwise be hopeless.” — Nick Pinkerton, indieWIRE

“It’s a glorious collage of young person moods: loneliness, confusion, revolt and languor. Meadows builds on this endearing formula with an involving interrogation of hate, and a bold willingness to show how a racist mentality can offer outsiders the dangerous illusion of salvation. The spot-on juvenilia alternates between modes of cuteness and terror.” — Eric Kohn, The Reeler

“What a weird and unpleasant land Britain was in the early 1980s…I don’t think that Meadows set out to shoot a state-of-the-nation parable. He set out to explore a contradiction within skinhead culture: the tribal dislike of foreigners, and the diehard allegiance to Jamaican ska music. Yet it’s clear that This is England is much bigger than this irony.” — James Christopher, The Times

“Every time he floats to us, the audience, a sense of Shaun’s brightness, Meadows is heightening the drama and asking the question: how badly are these skinheads going to screw up this kid’s future? How far down the wrong path are they going to take him? And we’re constantly reminded that Shaun is already dealing with the death of his father and trying to compute who this Thatcher person is that everyone keeps trying to tell him is to blame.” — Ryan Stewart, Cinematical

“This Is England is smart, funny, charming and appalling. It again proves that Meadows, already much loved for A Room For Romeo Brass and Dead Man’s Shoes, is one of the truly powerful and unique voices in UK film today, a master of character with an uncanny gift for fusing nostalgia with harsh reality.” — Todd at Twitch

Under discussion:

Bringing Up Baby  (1938)

Holiday  (1938)

Major League  (1989)

Boogie Nights  (1997)

Mysterious Skin  (2005)

Over at Sergio Leone and the Infield Flyball Rule, Dennis Cozzalio has offered the film blog world a 28-question “summer midterm.” As he puts it, “We know that the last thing you really want to do in the summer is to be sitting indoors taking a test. But wouldn’t you rather be doing this than seeing Transformers? I thought so. Now get to work!”

I’m not good with long quizzes, so for this week’s installment of The Micro Five, I’ve picked five questions to answer in short essay form. See my answers below, and be sure to check out Dennis’ post to read the 70+ (!) responses. This is pass/fail, right?

1. Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?

When I was 17, I was briefly employed as a hostess at Dupar’s, a been-there-forever diner in Studio City, CA that was used as a location for Boogie Nights. Dupar’s is the setting of that post-disco scene where Burt Reynolds explains his directorial vision to budding porn star Dirk Diggler. I haven’t read the Boogie Nights script, but I wouldn’t be surprised if sometime-Studio City resident Paul Thomas Anderson had written Dupar’s in by name–it’s a perfectly preserved monument to the Valley’s mid-70s glory, and I’m sure it required minimal set dressing. In my brief time there, I didn’t ID any porn stars (unless Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa have gone X-rated? They were in there a lot), but it was a fairly sleezy place. We were ordered to lie about our failing grade from the health department, and I actually quit after three weeks due to very low-level sexual harassment from my manager: one day he told me I’d “look good in a potato sack,” and in my teenage feminist brain, that was, like, cause for a lawsuit.

2. Best movie about baseball

Um, does Mysterious Skin count? I think it should. A little league coach’s molestation of two members of his team is the pivotal event that sets off the narrative. One of these boys, damaged by the abuse to the point of obsession, goes on to get a job at the field where he used to play and use his workplace as a venue for sexual encounters. I guess it’s no Major League, but it was one of my favorite films of 2005.

3. Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance

It’s got to be Bringing up Baby. I’m sure everyone says that, but how can you not get all googly over the performance that defines screwball? But Baby’s not my favorite Hepburn film; that would be Holiday, which is more of Cary Grant’s show, don’t you think? I don’t know–maybe I just don’t like to see her play the wallflower. Regardless, check out the funny Holiday clip reel above, set to “Spunky” by The Eels.

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