2008 Directed by Shane Meadows
Two teenagers, both newcomers to London, forge an unlikely friendship over the course of a hot summer. Tomo (Thomas Turgoose) is a runaway from Nottingham; Marek (Piotr Jagiello) lives in the district of Somers Town, between King's Cross and Euston stations, where his dad is working on a new rail link.
苏默斯小镇, סומרס טאון, Съмърс Таун, Сомерстаун, 소머스 타운
Ireland
UK
Sweden
USA
France
France
Ireland
Sweden
UK
USA
On day one of his runaway adventure from Nottingham, Tomo shares a train journey with the lovely Jane, arrives at Euston station in London and is promptly mugged. Now with only the clothes he's standing in and a bloody nose, a different kind of new journey begins.
Tomo soon meets Polish kid Marek, who is living in the local flats with his Dad. Marik is obsessed with local fresh-faced French fox and cafe girl Maria, who is full of smiles and friendly too. While helping to get Tomo back on his feet, the boys spend their days just getting by the best that they can, and trying not to get into too much trouble along the way
Perry Benson puts…
In the current climate it was just nice to revisit something that depicted happy relations between British people and Polish and French immigrants so well.
Since the disastrous result, racist abuse and hate crime has increased. Please sign this petition demanding the Home Office does something to protect the people who make a significant contribution to the life, culture and economy of the UK from the idiotic bigots who shame and slur this country by their actions.
Meadows does Jarmusch- student film style. It takes the lazy Sunday aspect of A Room for Romeo Brass is extends it, going for simplicity in this tale of friendship. There’s no hard hitting social element like This Is England, it’s instead a thesis on boys being dumb, and with such a short runtime it works fairly smoothly. The soundtrack was oddly interfering with the mostly intimate affair, bordering on music video rather than a film driven by dialogue and story. A black and white character study that chooses to meander goes against what we perceive as a proper study of a man and/or a section of people post-Raging Bull, but it’s never explicitly weak, just slight. It also makes sense why Meadows went small after two big statement films- he aims to find beauty in the moments everyone looks past. Any filmmaker would rejoice in creating a lesser work that is this delightful.
Somers Town is definitely an under-recognised gem from Shane Meadows. It's a soft, reflective journey of two boys in London, both who don't really have a sense of home - The polish immigrant and the rambling English boy far from home. It has a meditive quality to it throughout the film, focused more on feeling than story, making it feel almost as if you're watching a memory, without the film being overtly sentimental. There's some heavy themes, but at the heart of it is a comfort film about two boys finding friendship in a world they've found themselves lost in.
This will be the last film I watch in 2023, which has been the year where I've watched more films than ever in my life. I'm really happy to end it on a film that feels so compassionate and genuinely good hearted. Happy new year! :)
Somers Town is so stylish and boldly captured, you can't help but love it if not a little bit. The street shots were so perfectly presented, it made my heart happy.
Absolutely hillarious humour between the two boys. I genuinely laughed out loud with a smirk at the silly lines they had between them.
A charasmatic, pat on the back tale of family and friendship in the most unliklihood of places. Turgoose did it again, he's a cheeky beggar!!!
I’ll take this over a hollywood blockbuster any day. The shit of life mixed with some good laughs. Another Shane Meadows slice of life.
Postcard cinema from the great Shane Meadows.
Somers Town is a charming, intricate character study gorgeously photographed in black and white. It highlights friendship, love, society and internationality in under 80 minutes; an impeccable feat.
Technically the film serves as a form of companion piece for the heavy advertising campaigns for National Rail throughout 2008 - with much of the film spent between King's Cross and Euston stations - but never does this feel like a work of product endorsement, rather a poem about the distances in our lives; be they psychical or spiritual.
Ну название не обманывает - действительно летний ненапряжный фильм, чтоб с утра поднять настроение
This is another great film from Shane Meadows in my opinion. He's great at doing films that revolve around unlikely friendships, and with Meadows regulars Thomas Turgoose and Perry Benson in tow, my high expectations were met. What the hell has happened to Turgoose though? He was one of the most up and coming young British talents around, and the last few years have been unfortunately quiet.
