By EWAN McDONALD
(Herald rating: * * * )
The British obsession for following obscure football teams that habitually lose — like Exeter City, Halifax Town or England — is difficult for Kiwis to understand. Here's a movie that goes some way towards explaining this dark Saturday afternoon of the soul.
Gerry (Chris
Beatty) and Sewell (Greg McClane) are best mates, serial truants, soccer-mad teens living in Newcastle.
They are products of generations of unemployment, broken families, runaway, drug-addicted sisters, chain-smoking mothers, drunken and abusive fathers in the North of England. The only consistent presence in their lives is the police.
The lads' only release from this hell called everyday life is their beloved Newcastle United. They want to raise £1000 for season tickets, which leads to far more inventive, desperate and criminal methods of fundraising than any New Zealand soccer club has ever dreamed up. Along the way are run-ins with girlfriends, family members, soccer stars and the ever-present arms of the law.
Using first-time actors from the part of town that forms the backdrop for his story, director Mark Herman unveils the real pathos: the boys were born and raised in the neighbourhood and will die there. Soccer is their religion, their faith, their hope, their bond with their neighbours.
Herman mined the same quarries for Brassed Off and Little Voice, though this is a much bleaker story than those ultimately uplifting tales.
Rental video, DVD: Today
• DVD features: movie (95 mins); director's commentary; cast and crew interviews; trailer; making-of feature; TV ads; on location scenes.
