The story of boy meets girl. They fall in love. And buy Brand X Aug 14, 2008
"Shane has one of those voices that's completely unique, and in fact there is far more evidence of wrong notes in his big budget film Once Upon A Time In The Midlands.". Matthew Sweet, of Radio 4's Film Programme is similarly philosophical. (BBC News -- UK)
* Life's a party Dec 13, 2007
Since then, he has been busy appearing, with varying degrees of success, in films as diverse as Little Nicky, directed by Steven Brill, The Shipping News (Lasse Hallstrom) and Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (Shane Meadows). He is most proud of his bravura performance as Peter Cook in Channel 4 television's biopic of the great comedian, Not Only But Always, which earned him a British Academy of Film and Television Arts nomination for best actor in 2005. (Taipei Times, Taiwan -- World)
Mama, don't let your boys grow up to be skinheads Nov 10, 2007
The man behind a series of hit-and-miss efforts such as A Room for Romeo Brass and Once Upon a Time in the Midlands, Meadows has a habit of pushing his viewers into a single interpretation of his characters, and if you're not willing to get on the boat, the story is generally just irritating to sit through. With This is England, Meadows gives us a character who is practically impossible not to like -- at least in the beginning. (National Post)
This is England ***1/2 Nov 9, 2007
This Is England draws on the youthful experiences of writer-director Shane Meadows ( A Room for Romeo Brass, Once Upon a Time in the Midlands), who was an impressionable kid during the turning point in skinhead culture when the neo-Nazi National Front introduced its racist agenda to a working-class youth culture that had primarily been about ska music, fashion (Doc Marten boots, shaved heads etc. and a tough attitude. (Globe and Mail -- Entertainment)
A boy's dilemma amidst the call of the skinheads Aug 10, 2007
Meadows has previously made a series of gritty, whimsical, and very British dramas -- "A Room for Romeo Brass" (1999) and the lesser "Once Upon a Time in the Midlands" (2002) have received the widest distribution in the United States, which still isn't saying much -- but here he finally seems to come into his own. There's a gutter pride taken in how aggressively Shaun confronts the world, but there's also a blunt, no-nonsense analysis of where the kid goes wrong, and you know he knows it, too. (Boston Globe)
Bourne Identity grabs top spot Aug 6, 2007
Anglo-German co-production Once Upon A Time In The Midlands has entered the chart at number 15. Billed as a "tinned spaghetti Western", the film stars Robert Carlyle, Rhys Ifans, Kathy Burke and Ricky Tomlinson and transplants a Western-style storyline to a working-class milieu in the West Midlands. (BBC News -- Entertainment)
This Is England Apr 27, 2007
I found myself wishing that their love story could occupy more of the film, maybe for the same reason that the Shane Meadows film I have enjoyed most is the one his real fans loathe: the comedy Once Upon a Time in the Midlands. But from the get-go of this drama, it is obvious that things are heading only one way: towards a climactic flourish of violence, and it's a glum business wondering to whom and from whom this is going to happen. (Guardian Unlimited)
Boots and bovver Apr 23, 2007
"I never really thought of myself as a director, even when I was doing it. Most people who want to be a director look at Spielberg, Scorsese or Jim Jarmusch. I was making films just to have a laugh and get people together. It s not what you expect to hear from one of the brightest British film-makers of his generation, but then Shane Meadows is full of surprises. During the past ten years, the self-taught 35-year-old from Uttoxeter has assembled a canon of work that examines life in provincial... (Times Online)
Uttoxeter grit beats Windsor glamour to film prize Nov 30, 2006
This Is England is Meadows's fifth full-length feature - previous ones include Dead Man's Shoes and Once Upon a Time in the Midlands - and is partly based on his childhood in Uttoxeter, evoking the period of Margaret Thatcher, the Falklands aftermath, Rubik's Cubes and racism. Meadows missed out in the best director category to Kevin Macdonald for his film adaptation of the Giles Foden novel The Last King of Scotland, a fictionalised account of Idi Amin and his Scottish doctor which, again, has... (Guardian Unlimited)
Dead Man's Shoes Oct 12, 2006
(His others are Twenty Four Seven and Once Upon a Time in the Midlands. . (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Didn't you kill my brother? Oct 6, 2006
He took the bigger budget, all-star route with Once Upon A Time in The Midlands - which he now considers a mis-step - before reuniting with Considine for Dead Man's Shoes, the story of a former soldier returning to his hometown in the British Midlands to exact revenge on some drug-peddling hustlers. The story is deeply personal to Meadows. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
