There seems to be some ill-will towards this tidy little parable and I cannot understand why.
Maybe the Joy Division fanboys feel the material is misplaced but I contend the great soundtrack is only used to set time and place and does not work in reverse like some latter day music vid.
Nor is it a 'hooligan' movie.
My own reaction was that this is a terrific effort, both from a committed cast and production side who nail the period in perfect British bleakness.
The football hooliganism feels like it is intended - a fantastical sideshow and not the main thrust of the film which centres around a lower middle-class lad's attempt for acceptance by a pack of working-class hooligans and the unrequited homosexual love between him and the pack's coolest member.
Carty, said middle-class lad, ultimately is a tourist, and the film conveys this superbly while whipping us along for the ride.
Pay little attention to those attempting to fold this boisterous creation into a pigeon hole; it stands on its own as a potent reflection of a sentimentally grim time in British culture.
Entertaining, admirable and bittersweet. Watch it.
Maybe the Joy Division fanboys feel the material is misplaced but I contend the great soundtrack is only used to set time and place and does not work in reverse like some latter day music vid.
Nor is it a 'hooligan' movie.
My own reaction was that this is a terrific effort, both from a committed cast and production side who nail the period in perfect British bleakness.
The football hooliganism feels like it is intended - a fantastical sideshow and not the main thrust of the film which centres around a lower middle-class lad's attempt for acceptance by a pack of working-class hooligans and the unrequited homosexual love between him and the pack's coolest member.
Carty, said middle-class lad, ultimately is a tourist, and the film conveys this superbly while whipping us along for the ride.
Pay little attention to those attempting to fold this boisterous creation into a pigeon hole; it stands on its own as a potent reflection of a sentimentally grim time in British culture.
Entertaining, admirable and bittersweet. Watch it.