Film Reviews

Somers Town

• Rating:
• Director: Shane Meadows
• Starring: Elisa Lasowski
• Details: UK / 75mins (15).

Somers Town is a change of pace for Shane Meadows after Dead Man's Shoes and This Is England. Teenage Polish immigrant Marek (Jagiello) spends his days wandering around London snapping photos while his father (Czop) works on a railway. It's on one of these outings that Marek runs into Tomo (Turgoose), a runaway from Nottingham and in need of a place to stay. The two team up and Meadows's camera follows them about London as they fill spend their time doing teenage boy stuff. There isn't a story as such, just two guys going about their day and the director is smart enough to call time before it gets a tad boring (at 75 minutes it's barely a feature).

Meadows, working from Paul Fraser's script (who also helped pen Once Upon A Time In The Midlands and 24 7), delights in subverting audiences' expectations: the grim overture doesn't suggest the charming and heart-warming remainder and nefarious-looking characters actually turn out to be good people. Turgoose, spell-binding in This Is England, matures slightly here while still bringing that natural approach to his character; he's backed up by debutant Jagiello and the two prove to be a winning duo. It may lack the energy and tension of Meadow's previous outings but the director is branching out into other territories, this being a coming-of-age comedy more than anything else, and can chalk this venture down as a success.

Review by Gavin Burke