Awaydays

There seems to be some ill-will towards this tidy little parable and I cannot understand why.

Maybe the Joy Division fanboys feel the material is misplaced but I contend the great soundtrack is only used to set time and place and does not work in reverse like some latter day music vid.

Nor is it a 'hooligan' movie.

My own reaction was that this is a terrific effort, both from a committed cast and production side who nail the period in perfect British bleakness.

The football hooliganism feels like it is intended - a fantastical sideshow and not the main thrust of the film which centres around a lower middle-class lad's attempt for acceptance by a pack of working-class hooligans and the unrequited homosexual love between him and the pack's coolest member.

Carty, said middle-class lad, ultimately is a tourist, and the film conveys this superbly while whipping us along for the ride.

Pay little attention to those attempting to fold this boisterous creation into a pigeon hole; it stands on its own as a potent reflection of a sentimentally grim time in British culture.

Entertaining, admirable and bittersweet. Watch it.

Having read Kevin Sampson's thoughtful novel the screen version is something of a disappointment. Characterisation and motivation are largely over-looked in favour of scenes of adrenaline-charged violence. The clothing and style of the era are meticulously created for "The pack" (the hooligan group that Carty joins) but you have to question why the people they fight are generally older less fashionably dressed groups. The pack also emerge from every fight with barely an injury. The music itself is good but often misused - is Joy Division's delicately mournful "The Eternal" really an appropriate soundtrack to a group of bovver boys snarling their way down the street? Shane Meadows "This is England" offers a far superior vision of the period.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

After the death of his mother, Paul (Nicky Bell) is looking for some direction in his life and thinks he's found it with 'the pack', a gang of football hooligans in late '70s Merseyside with a distinctive dress sense and tribal mentality. However, an encounter with former top boy Elvis (Liam Boyle) gives him an alternate view of them and the possibility of moving his life in a more positive direction. Elvis's dream is to escape to Berlin and lead a more fulfilling life and this is a direction Paul sees...but circumstances beyond his control drag him down with those around him and see his life thrown into chaos.

As morally dubious as they are, 'hooligan' films certainly have their own cult following in the UK, although this dramatization of a late 70s Merseyside gang has received limited exposure. It's an admirable piece, without any funding from any of the big London studios (ah), and it's not translated particularly badly into a film. But that doesn't mean it works.

The performances from the two lead actors are fine, as well as supporting actors such as man of the moment Stephen Graham in a smaller role, but who manages to have presence even with this. And it's an engaging piece of human drama, that manages to sweep you along with enough substance and depth to keep you hooked. But it's all lost on some weird art-house trip with itself, with slow, lingering close up shots of Boyle's bare chest and symbolism with red paint flowing between fingers representing blood, all done to a haunting Joy Division soundtrack. While it's stuck in this rut, the story becomes less engaging, the characters lose their depth and the film generally becomes a bit of a mess. Hardly a failure, but still a bit of a shame. **

Awaydays is a very misunderstood film in some respects. Had it been made in a time when we weren't already saturated with "football hooligan" films I genuinely believe it would've been much better received. Like Alan Clarke's 1988 "The Firm" which also uses football violence as a backdrop, Awaydays is much deeper than the likes of Football Factory. It's a story about two young lads both in that gap between being at school and entering the grown up real world if you like.

The two main characters are (I'm guessing) aged about 19 and both have dreams but neither has direction. What they have in common is they both want one another's life. It's almost tragic, because neither is going anywhere really.

After initially forming a close bond (and it's suggested that Elvis has romantic feelings towards Carty) their friendship soon starts to fall apart when the underlying reality that they are nothing alike surfaces. Neither are particularly likeable character's albeit in different ways. Elvis is probably the worse of the pair but has a very likeable side to him, he's the cool one of The Pack if you like, and the hooligan side of him is only one of a few personalities he seems to live.

Awaydays is gritty, and it's northern setting fits the story perfectly. I've read a lot of other reviews commenting on how fake the scouse accents are, but the film isn't set in Liverpool it's set on the Wirral, Birkenhead to be exact and I suppose given it's location it is a little like a Liverpool accent but slightly off if that makes sense?

Anyway, if you're expecting a football hooligan film you could be sorely disappointed. If you want to watch a decent coming of age drama with a great story I would highly recommend Awaydays.

Tried desperately hard to enjoy this film and it seemed to start off OK but the mixed story lines, and slow moving scenes etc meant I was nodding off about half way through and found it a struggle to get to the end.

Some good bits but too jumbled and so many loose ends to really enjoy along with a damp squid of an ending that did it no favours. The sound track was probably the most enjoyable element with some decent 70's 80's tunes throughout.

As hooligan films go, bit more realistic in places than sum such as Green St which is utter tosh but not on the same level as the original film of the 'Firm' with Gary Oldman which is a classic and still the best in my opinion.