Modern Masterpieces #2: This Is England

After his feature debut Twentyfourseven in 1997, Shane Meadows seemed destined to become the most underrated and underappreciated British director of his generation. Though his films are rich in period detail, unique characters, and naturalistic acting, Meadows spent the first half of his career struggling to break through.

1999’s A Room For Romeo Brass may have introduced the world to the blazing character acting of Paddy Considine (as well as regular collaborator Andrew Shim), but it never managed to find a real audience. Three years later, Meadows released gentle comedy drama Once Upon A Time in the Midlands. Despite a mainstream cast of British talents (including Rhys Ifans, Robert Carlyle and Shirley Henderson), Once Upon A Time in the Midlands never really came together, and once again failed to dent the box office. In 2004, Meadows rebounded with Dead Man’s Shoes, a blisteringly intense and intensely personal revenge film which featured, in Paddy Considine’s dangerous soldier Richard, one of the greatest British performances of the decade. Artistically successful it may have been, but the film’s mixed critical reviews and low box office takings were yet another disappointing result. Finally, in 2006, Meadows combined the joyous nostalgia of his early films with the powerful realism of Dead Man’s Shoes to create his critical, commercial, and personal masterpiece: This Is England.