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closeWednesday, Oct. 28, 2009
You'll want more of small gem 'Somers Town'
filmmovement.com
BOTTLED UP: Thomas Turgoose, left, and Piotr Jagiello filmmovement.com
Somers Town
****
Unrated (strong language, mild sexuality, alcohol use); 70 min.
Here’s a rarity — a feature film that’s actually too short. Shot mostly in black and white and focusing on the random adventures of two young London outsiders, Somers Town is a small-scale jewel that will surprise you with its buoyant look at blighted lives.
Tomo (Thomas Turgoose), a fair-haired teen who arrives by train from up north, is escaping from a hopeless home life. He has nowhere to go, and after an encounter with three young muggers, is left with nothing but the track suit he’s wearing.
Marek (Piotr Jagiello) is a Polish immigrant youngster who cooks meals for his construction-worker dad (Ireneusz Czop), but otherwise has little to do, except take photographs and perform odd jobs for a neighbor (Perry Benson) engaged in shady enterprises.
These young men are isolated, far from home and dazed by their dismal circumstances. But when they pair off, each becomes the other’s lifeline.
The setting is Somers Town, a working-class London neighborhood where Marek and his dad reside in gritty council housing with a view of the St. Pancras railway station.
The story, highly episodic, is simply the growth of their friendship as they find ways to pass the time, pinching clothes from a coin laundry, getting drunk, mooning over a young French waitress (Elisa Lasowski), hopping a train to Paris (where the film briefly switches to color).
Director Shane Meadows (This Is England) quietly lets us see that something of value comes from the boys’ seeming aimlessness. In his view, the sun has certainly set on the British Empire, but he doesn’t beat the idea to death, focusing instead on the details, often comic, of the youngsters’ relationship.
Note: The two young leads shared the best actor award at last year’s Tribeca festival.
In Polish and English with English subtitles.
Exclusive: Angelika Dallas
— Walter Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle
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