Review of This Is England (2007) by Anna B — 25 Feb 2015

The tendency towards heavy-handedness and obviousness is mostly offset by the raw emotional depth and shockingly good performances (Stephen Graham, holy shit). It seemed like the conflict between Shaun's loyalties to Combo or Woody (who is almost absurdly good-natured and whom I envy for having the razor-sharp Lol for a girlfriend) should have been explored more.

The ending we got is a bit of a copout character-wise if I'm reading it right (i.e., "It's OK, he's not really racist, he's just mentally ill!") Whatever, it's a good movie.