AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

dwpollar 1st watched 8/9/2013 – 7 out of 10(Dir-Shane Meadows): Charming slice of life drama about a couple of young boys in London who don't have much for themselves at the beginning of the movie but find friendship kind of accidentally, which provides for them the support that they both need. One is from Nottingham, named Tomas, who decides to travel to London because there is nothing for him in Nottingham(according to his point of view). The other is a son of a Polish immigrant who is part of a broken family, and basically has nothing to do while his father works in the daytime until Tomas comes on the scene. They both are mischievous and definitely not saints, but their charm is in how they have learned to survive. Tomas uses any means to get by with occasionally stealing food and conniving people, and his newfound friend kind of goes along with him. The Polish son has an infatuation with a French waitress which Tomas meets and also begins the same. Their pursuit of her makes up the rest of the movie, and it isn't an American-type perverted pursuit but rather they figure out ways to win her heart. This is the kind of film that will leave a lasting impression to it's viewers but never make a lot of money. It is about real people with real problems who find real solutions to at least get by. A colorized ending is attached to this otherwise black and white film leaving the viewer wondering if this actually happened or was a dream sequence. What the movie does do is make you believe that pursuing your dreams is a positive thing none-the-less. These are the kind of movies I could watch everyday and wish Hollywood would pursue similar fare(at least once-in-a-while).

Howard Schumann Anais Nin said, "Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born." A new world is indeed born for two lonely teenagers in Shane Meadows' Somers Town, a spirited 70-minute exploration of the bonds that can arise out of mutual need. Originally intended as a 20-minute promo by railway line Eurostar to publicize their high-speed London to Paris train, the film contains references to high-speed trains but is in no sense an advertisement for anything except good film-making. Written by frequent Meadows collaborator Paul Fraser and shot in high contrast black and white, the film stars Thomas Turgoose, the twelve-year-old Skinhead in This is England as Tomo, a runaway orphan from Nottingham.Tomo comes to London to find something better in life but is beaten and robbed of his money and belongings on his first night away from home. He soon meets Marek (Piotr Jagiello), an introverted Polish teen who lives with his father in one of the flats in Somers Town, a working class area in Northern London. Somers Town is named after the Somers family who owned the land and can boast of such former residents as Charles Dickens, Arthur Rimbaud, and Paul Verlaine. Marek warily agrees to let Tomo stay with him but they are both fearful of being discovered by Marek's father (Ireneusz Czop), a Polish immigrant, who is often known to come home drunk. Shot in and around Phoenix Court, a low rise council property in Purchese Street, their friendship grows as they are put to work by a scheming neighbor Graham (Perry Benson) stacking and sanding lawn chairs.Soon they are pulling off dicey capers, and competing for the affection of Maria (Elisa Lasowski), a lovely French waitress in a local café. One of the film's high points is when the two boys find an abandoned wheelchair and give Maria a ride home, a gesture that prompts her to plant a kiss on each boy's cheek, telling them that she loves them equally. Tomo likes to talk tough but his vulnerability shows through his poses and we can see that underneath there is a good person struggling to emerge. Marek is a photographer who has a gentleness about him and the two personalities seem to complement each other. Supported by an outstanding acoustic soundtrack of songs by Gavin Clarke and Ted Barnes, Meadows captures the grittiness of blue-collar existence but balances it with a light touch that makes the film a thorough delight.One of the funniest sequences is when the two steal a bag of clothes from the Laundromat that turn out to be mostly women's garments which Tomo is forced to wear simply because he doesn't have anything else. When Maria decides to return home to Paris without saying goodbye, the boys plan a train trip to find her and, in a color montage that may be real or imagined, the film explodes into unexpected lyricism. Meadows latest film may not have the clout of Dead Man's Shoes (2004) or This is England (2006) but to call it insubstantial just because it is short is to do it a grave injustice. Somers Town is so natural and the character's growing pains so poignant that you will have a hard time ever getting it out of your head.

geckokid I really felt cheated by this film. I had of course heard about the fact that Eurostar had entirely funded the project, but I had also read several reviews that stated that blatant sloganeering for the company was kept to a minimum and didn't overly distract from the narrative of the film. I'm afraid I completely disagree. Although I enjoyed many elements of the story (the gentle humour and refreshingly low-key character development), the film culminates in what amounts to a blatant product endorsement for Eurostar, complete with characters waving their freshly purchased train tickets in front of the camera and a picture postcard visit to the Eiffel Tower, which you could imagine running, looped rotation-style, on a screen embedded in the back of a Eurostar recliner.This obviously funding influenced choice in direction was doubly troubling. Firstly because it reduced the entire film to little more than a pathos-filled commercial and secondly because it betrayed the narrative of the film, substituting a ludicrously jubilant and quite improbable ending (two boys of that age and economic bracket permitted to go off on a little jaunt to Paris together? where did they get the funds? how did they find Maria? how is Tomo living and supporting himself?) in what had been to that point an enjoyable exercise in social realism.In short, yes, a film funded in this way obviously does have an impact on the artistic decisions taken by the director. Can we really call this independent cinema? I felt duped and I'm surprised other viewers don't seem to have felt the same way.

Jack Blackburn (blackburnj-1) Shane Meadows' beautiful snapshot of life for two teenagers in North London, "Somers Town", is a million miles away from "This is England" in tone, but has no less class or brilliance about it. Filmed in wonderful black and white, this is a delightful, entertaining and involving piece about youth, culture and friendship.The power of Meadows's film-making is in his characters. Something rings fundamentally true about the people that he brings to the screen, and the writing of Paul Fraser (a long time Meadows-collaborator) is a great help to this film. The dialogue is humorous, moving and insightful, which gets the audience utterly involved in this film. Added to this, the acting is wonderful. Thomas Turgoose, who was spectacular in "This is England", continues to be an impressive and interesting screen presence. He is ably supported, not just by Piotr Jagiello, who plays the Polish teenager Marek, but by the rest of the small, but perfectly formed, ensemble.This film is not just an entertaining and moving piece, but is also a beautiful film with a dash of severity. There is a particularly emotive and thought-provoking scene where the immigrant father and son talk to each other. Britain's debates on immigration often ignore the individuals involved in the issues, and that scene cuts right to an unexplored area of the matter.The beauty of the film is not just in its emotions and characters, but also in its photography. Monochrome is a form of cinematography which lends itself to beauty, but Meadows exploits this magnificently. There is a change to colour during the film which could have been crass but is in fact wonderful. The images are also accompanied by a beautiful series of songs which give the film real character. All of these elements come to fore in a number of dialogue-less sequences.Meadows has created a lovely piece of cinema. Short though it is, that is part of its charm. It is not extraneous or self-indulgent. It is what it is: a simple joy to be delighted in by many.