A Room for Romeo Brass

It was so pleasurable to watch this lovely film about the quest for friendship and loyalty in an often cruel and punishing world. Meadows has been described as a Midlands Scorsese; however, to my mind there is a vein of sweetness, naivete, in Meadows' work, as in the man himself, that is absent from Scorsese's films. He captures, with reason - since much of his material is autobiographical - the jocular and tender aspects of working class life while rendering vividly the violence that can also lurk there. His dramas are always holding and infinitely endearing in a tough minded way. In this film, Meadows' love is obviously directed at the valiant and caring mothers, but he allows the fathers of the boys, who appear never to get it right, to finally redeem themselves, each in his own way.

In talking with Shane Meadows, I learned that he recruits his actors from the 6 - 20 year old group of actors in his town, and that he is very proud of the fact that, by this means, he can help them take a step toward extricating themselves from their hard lot in life. Shane Meadows is a survivor and an artist, one who has the heart and the enormous ability to give heart to others who must still find their way. Bravo!!!

This film reminded me of how powerless you are as a child - just being outside can get you into a fight, while adults, who often have no right to, can have control over your life. It reminded me how children can "break" or "make" friends so easily, with past grievances forgiven and forgotten in a few seconds. Adults tend to find that a lot harder to do.

I watched this film without knowing anything about it, so perhaps I found the scenes where Morell threatens the two boys on different occasions to be extremely shocking (incidentally, the swearing which is almost constantly present in the film is NOT shocking in the slightest).

The main thing that I got from the film was concerned with how masculinity is defined - Morell tries to teach Romeo Brass how to be a "man" via weird survivalist techniques - violence, macho posturing, being able to take care of yourself seem to be the ways that masculinity is mediated. The bragging and posturing that occurs in the fights between Morell and the boy's fathers seem to mirror an earlier fight between the boys and two other boys who are playing football at the beginning of the film - "are you trying to start a fight?" "No, I AM starting a fight". It was interesting that Knock-Knock's father and Morell were both wearing almost identical shell-suits in the violent climax scene.

While this was technically a good film, I found it to be much more disturbing than Zombie Flesheaters or whatever, because of its realism.

Hidden as it was in the BBC schedules, I nearly missed this gem of a film. Shane Meadows seems to improve with every picture, following up the raw promise of 'Small Time' and the almost great 'TwentyFourSeven' with this priceless jewel, which is proof that Meadows alone carries the torch of the British film industry forward amidst the Guy Ritchie pap we churn out on a regular basis.

Although the acting from some of the minor characters was a bit on the dodgy side, Paddy Considine shone as the socially inadequate Morrell and the two lads (and their fathers in a memorably frightening final scene) did a solid job. Credit must also go to the screenwriter Paul Fraser, who has breathed some life into the cliched, patronizing 'working class' sceenplays that featured in 'Brassed Off', or (worse) 'The Full Monty'. The usual 'working class' signifiers (a guest appearance by Kathy Burke, or chain smoking as a character trait) were thankfully missing.

'A Room For Romeo Brass' was an excellent piece of observation. The character Morrell brings back awful memories of acquaintances I had in my youth, and these people still hang around the estate like the foulest of stenches. The film replicated 'life' in a way that Danny Boyle would fail to comprehend.

There were some minor imperfections (for instance, the music was over the top), but Meadows is only 29, he has time to perfect his craft. For everyone disillusioned with British film and its compulsion to chase the dollar, this film will restore that lost faith.

I had my arm twisted to go and see this and was knocked out by the unsentimental acting of the two central young characters (Gavin and Romeo), as well as the brilliant accuracy of the dialogue (uncertain, banal and lyrical portrayals of tenderness and callousness coexisting wonderfully well). But I want to take this opportunity to talk about the cinema in which I saw it. The Plaza Community cinema in Crosby is absolutely brilliant for showing this film. it is run by a highly dedicated group of volunteers, whose leader (Janet) saved the cinema almost single handed from the ravages of the developers. It shows a great variety of films and is the nearest thing Merseyside gets to the Cornerhouse in Manchester. keep up the good work Janet.

This is a truly great film, not seen by enough people in my opinion, Shane Meadows is a breath of fresh air for the British film industry, and I won't hesitate to go and see his next film, on the strength, of his last two ( twentyfourseven, romeo brass ) While most british audiences are somewhat ignorant to quality films like this, and would rather watch overrated films like 'Lock Stock...' there is always a hardcore of fans for films like this. Shane Meadows is inspired by the likes of Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, possibly Britain's best independent directors, but Meadows adds a bit more 'cheer' to this film, who says its uncool to have a happy ending? Romeo and Gavin are twelve year old pals, who have a great understanding of each other, and their surroundings, but then their friendship is tested when Morrel ( Paddy Considine ) enters their life, at first he is a pal, but why is a grown man hanging around with two boys? he then wants to date Romeo's sister, little do they realise they are being drawn into a world of obsession, violence and desperation, will it all come good in the end? Watch out for the outstanding performance from Paddy Considine, it really is the best debut from an actor ever!