TwentyFourSeven

This wonderful film ironises the feel-good 'Rocky' tradition to critique an ideology - Thatcherism - that poisoned a nation still searching for the antidote. Like all Meadows films, this is great fun, with authentic-seeming performances matched by remarkable style which mixes stylised naturalism and sketch-like sequences. But looming over the larks is a depressing framing story - we know the plot ends up here. The unbearable tension is wondering how. The answer is heartbreaking, showing how the thatcher years brought Britain to the brink of fascism, where an underclass are either bullied or ignored to a point where the only means of expression is self-destructive violence. The 'poetic' voiceover is a mistake, especially for a director of Meadow's visual intelligence, but he'll get there. A great feature debut.

TwentyFourSeven is a pleasing film from director Shane Meadows who also acted and co-wrote the screenplay. Rather sensibly for a first-time endeavour, he's opted for a low-key work rather than the flashy fragmented works of other young debutantes (Guy Ritchie please take note).

The story is alarmingly simple and is thus: Alan Darcy (Bob Hoskins, excellent) helps out wayward youths in a harsh Northern town by running a boxing club. And that, basically, is it. The film perhaps plays on too narrow a canvass and it's "life is harsh" rhetoric can be mildly overstated. Witness the habitual drug user who turns up to a bout with the largest spliff in history. This guy does drugs, and in case you don't get the point, here's a telescopic joint that would bankrupt Columbia. Bruce Jones' wife-beater can also be a little one-dimensional, saved only by the actors' charm. Yet the fact that the screenplay is so modest in it's ambitions helps it immensely. A lesser talent would have thrown everything at the screen for his first full-length work, yet Meadows tells his tale and tells it well.

Dialogue that could veer towards slight pretention is saved by the wonderful Hoskins, while the real triumph is the black and white filming. This isn't the Schindler's List type of black and white; a dull grey that looks like a normal film with the colour control on your TV turned down. This is a dark, grimy black and white that takes away any contemporary restraints. Particularly notable are the scenes set against the woods and train car, and the pace they evoke. This is a film that doesn't drag but takes it's time with precision. It will entertain you and doesn't need to rush it. Impressive.

For my money this is the best film of the year. Best in that it didn't cost a fortune but packs as much of an emotional wallop as any blockbuster with 200 times the budget. Bob Hoskins plays Darcy, the burnt out soccer coach whose past history is told in flashback through his diary. It tells of how he trained up a team of no-hopers into becoming boxers with something to live for. Shot in luminous black and white, the feature debut of Shane Meadows is a remarkably sensitive, blisteringly funny portrait of hopelessness in Nottingham. The city has always had its problems but is also one of the most vibrant places on earth and Meadows captures the balance perfectly.

The sulphurous black and white photography adds much class to the production and the team of largely unknown actors handle things admirably.

The movie also features one of the most realistic fight scenes ever committed to celluloid when Hoskins and Coronation Street's Bruce Jones (Les Battersby) lay into one another. Both actors walked away with broken bones and this is jut one element of why 24/7 is a cut above the average movie. It's life captured on film with few romantic films. But the message is as powerful as one of Hoskins' punches in the ribs. Meadows will inevitably get more money for his next picture and will no doubt be sucked into the Hollywood mainstream which will probably be the death of him. If that happens, let's hope he doesn't lose sight of the genius which he embedded into every frame of 24/7.

Hoskins is superb,again. Ranks up there with Mike Leigh's Thatcher films. Gorgeous photography-great music-a little thin on background for an American to comprehend the full drama.

This film was one I had heard of, thought I'd like to see, but simply missed. When it came on pay-tv I made a point of taping it and I'm glad I did. In an extremely simple but effective way this film transports the viewer to a seedy english working class neighbourhood with its local 'colour' and crushing gloom, hopelessness and misery. A fair short film, in some respects I felt the tale unfinished - little by way of background, the heart of the film was the training and first competition which doesn't run too long, then - almost before you know it - its all over. Still, definitely worth a watch for some fine acting, interesting (though not overly original) plot, and fine but simple film-making. (ps although I can understand the use of b/w I'm not really convinced it was all that necessary or effective). My vote 7/10