Shane Meadows

First off, a big thank you to Tatty for introducing me to him, I probably never would have heard of him had it not been for you...

Now, having seen most of his films (save for Once upon a time which, on advice of others, I've skipped so we'll just pretend it doesn't exist for the sake of this thread...) I thought it was time to bring the MoFo spotlight on him. For those of you unfamiliar with his work, Meadows is a 35 year old Brit director most famous for Dead Man's Shoes, a brutal, low budget thriller shot in 3 weeks and one of the best British films I've seen in recent years. He has also directed twentyfourseven, A room for Romeo Brass, Once upon a time in the Midlands, This is England and a bunch of short films.

Now I obviously love his work, I was blown away with Dead Man's Shoes, and thoroughly enjoyed TIE and ARFRB (I had some problems with twentyfourseven which I will mention a little later). All of them exude youthful energy and have excellent soundtracks (a rare occurrence and probably a major reason why I like his films so much). However, I have noticed a reoccurring theme in most of his films, which is "the exploding man" theme. Now, even though I thought all but twentyfourseven were excellent films, I'm a little worried if this trend continues, it might get tiresome after a while (to illustrate my point, if he had used Paddy Considine instead of Stephen Graham in This is England, it would have been a little too similar to Romeo Brass no?)

The problem I had with twentyfourseven is perhaps that its story is too ordinary (I've seen more than one film where the central character is trying to achieve catharsis by "saving" the troubled youth of the projects from crime through their involvement in sports). Also, having watched his work in reverse chronological order, I expected it to be much more violent than it actually turned out to be. I think DMS is his best work because he (finally) let his fascination with violence loose and didn't save any punches.

Ok, I'll stop for now and wait for other opinions. I've also included a little poll so you can choose your favorite Meadows film.

Fire away...

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I've only seen This Is England, so I won't vote on the poll just yet. I will move Dead Man's Shoes further up my list of films to see, though.

I am like Thursday I have only seen one of his movies, Dead Man's Shoes It is a great movie
Must now go and watch a few more of his

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Apparently there is a Shane Meadows boxset being released in September:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shane-Meadow...5816148&sr=1-5

Don't know why it doesn't include Once Upon A Time in the Midlands.

Ello there,

I've seen three of Shane Meadows' films and I can honestly say that he is a consistently good director. He doesn't have a particular style when it comes to the actual filming of his films, but he deals with similar themes in each of them.

As somebody pointed out, the 'exploading man' notion is prevalent in each and every one of Meadows' films, as is the concept of the woman as a catalyst for the 'exploading man' theory.

His films are simple but controversial at the same time. That's why I like him. He isn't afraid to delve into themes and topics that may be harder for other people to comprehend. Also, he is probably the best director at building up suspense since Brian DePalma. Oh, and he has a fantastic ear for soundtracks, too!

A fine director and I can't wait to see more films from this midlands man.

A Room For Romeo Brass - *** 1/2

Dead Man's Shoes - ****

This Is England - ****


Edit - Um, how do I vote??

I've seen 4 of his films (Dead Man's Shoes, This is England, 24/7 and A Room for Romeo Brass in that order) and I think he's by far the best British director working today.

I liked 24/7 but plan to watch it again because I was actually quite drunk when I saw it, I think A Room for Romeo Brass and Dead Man's Shoes are absolute masterpieces, both are original, funny, gripping and powerful - must-sees for any film fan.

My favourite is definitely This is England which I saw in Sheffield followed by a Q&A with Meadows and producer Mark Herbert. What a film! One of those films that really stays in your head long after seeing it, I can't believe it didn't get a wider release, none of my friends have even had the chance to see it yet!

Johnners, you really ought to watch 'Once Upon A Time in the Midlands'...it might complete your top 3

Really? I've always been led to believe it was a bit of a failure and Meadows was not at all happy with it....it does sound like an interesting idea but there's so many other films I want to see that it may be a while till i get around to seeing it.

Ok I get neg rep for this

Yeah, I got neg repped for a post in this thread too. I don't mind getting negative rep, but it is annoying when people just seem to neg rep every post in a thread, it kind of devalues the whole system. Although perhaps that is their intention...

I'll prepare for some negative rep from a small-minded arse too then.

Sorry I missed this thread adi.

Shane is the best young director working today, for me anyway.

Dead Man's Shoes is my favourite by a short head, in fact it's close to my favourite 'Revenge' film of all time. Spellbinding performances from Paddy Considine and Tony Kebbell, terrific writing, wonderful score and possibly the best drugs scene of recent years.

And that's only scratching the surface, all from a film costing in the £100,000s and produced in a matter of weeks. Meadows thought he was in the last chance saloon following OUATITM's universal panning so pared things back to the bone with his best mate Paddy. It worked.

Twenty Four Seven is next on my list and I think it's almost as good as Dead Man's Shoes. I understand what adi is saying about the story's 'ordinariness' but I think that's a strength. Every small town has quiet, decent men like Alan who think they can make a difference.

Bob Hoskins is wonderful, the best I've seen by one of my favourite actors, as is Bruce Jones - the unheralded TV actor (Les Battersby anyone?) who has been excellent in this and Ken Loach's Raining Stones.

Great soundtrack too.

I'd put Romeo Brass and This Is England quite close together. They're very different films but both show that Meadows is masterful when writing for and directing children.

Once Upon A Time In The Midlands isn't a bad film and has many good points - Rhys Ifans' and Shirley Henderson's performances for one, the modern Western setting another - but I find it much less than the sum of its parts.

I've got stronger thoughts on Dead Man's Shoes and This Is England in my reviews thread (hopefully soon to be sponsored by Guinness) if anyone's interested.

Adi, if you can track down any of Shane's short films, they're all worth a watch, especially Show Me The Money Ronnie and A Northern Soul.

EDIT - I must give Christine a bell because she's actually met the geezer...

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right here I am in the right place now

I haven't voted in the poll cos I'm stuck between voting for what I think is his best film - and even that's between TiE and DMS, but my favourite film is Room for Romeo Brass and I also love TwentyFour Seven - its got a lot of heart that film.

OUaTitM is ok, but a bit of a showcase for established actors that maybe didn't want to work the same way as Shane does, so maybe that's why he was disappointed in how it turned out, that and working for the big guys doesn't make for much freedom. He's thinking of doing a directors cut of it when he has some time, so we'll have to wait and see what happens there.

In the meantime a clip from Le Donk, his 'fly on the wall docu' with Paddy Considine

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1f-HRG-kahs

Aye, Le Donk looks interesting enough but I'm still waiting patiently for the Bartley Gorman biopic.