Review of Somers Town (2008) by Remote G — 27 Jan 2011

By Oliver Downes for remotegoat on 20/06/08.

'Somers Town' is director Shane Meadows wonderfully likable follow-up to his award-winning 'This Is England' (which received the BAFTA for Best British Film in 2006), again demonstrating his unerring instinct for creating affecting human cinema with unadorned simplicity.

Escaping from a bleak life in the midlands, Tomo (Thomas Turgoose) jumps on a train one day for the bustling promise of London. After being beaten up and robbed on his first night in the grimy streets around Kings Cross, he meets solitary teenager Marek (Piotr Jagiello), a Polish immigrant who passes the hours while his father Marius (Ireneusz Czop) is at work on the construction site at St Pancras Station taking photographs around Somers Town. Initially wary of each other, they become united in their adolescent lust for beautiful French waitress Maria (Elisa Lasewski), while forming various schemes for making a few pounds.

The two young leads both deliver strong performances, Turgoose (who also starred in This Is England) in great form as the peaky and resourceful Tomo while Jagiello lends an unobtrusive sweetness to the more quietly opinionated Marek. Shot almost entirely in black and white, Meadows uses simple compositions of the urban cityscape, bare shadings contrasting with the warm-hearted bond between the two boys.

In the vein of elder UK directors Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, Meadows subtly evokes the harsh economic and social reality of contemporary London, without allowing any possible sense of hopelessness to neutralise the film's gentle good humour. This is an unpretentious gem.