Pretty powerful but the plot is a bit shaky.

Rating: 7/10 (21 July 2006)

Matt Buckner is a student of journalism at Harvard University. One day he lets his roommate talk him into dropping out of college just to help him protect the reputation of his family. Matt drops out just a couple of months before his degree and receives a nice amount of money for doing it, letting his wealthy pal get the easy way out. Therefor Matt decides to pay a visit to his sister and her husband in London whom he hasn't seen in three years.
It's here that he meets his brother-in-law's brother who lours him into hanging out with his friends who are all members of a 'firm' called The GSE. Matt feels pretty aimless because of the lack in having any real goals in life right now. So therefor we see a good case of slipping deeper and deeper into a truly restless crowd and joining their activities.
The film is rich with really good performances and uncompromising depiction of gang violence. There's hardly any holding back on that part. The whole thing about 'hooligans' looks even more realistic than most documentaries on the subject. But I couldn't get rid of the sense that the plot is a bit fetched if not ridiculous. That rings somewhere in the back of your head all the time.
I mean it's a little hard to believe that some student would get affiliated with a crowd like that so quickly. And the whole American-Brit relationship seemed a bit dated if not a little pathetic. But despite the shaky premise it succeeds wonderfully in making you see how pointless it is to keep getting involved in violence. In that point of view the film is easily comparable to genre gems such as American History X. Who knows, maybe one day this film will be shown across high schools to kids at sociology.
....... - 4/5 .......