"I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles"; Lexi Alexander's film is certainly not a masterpiece but surely a personal favourite

Rating: 9/10 (17 July 2009)

After the Lord of the Rings trilogy Elijah Wood's first acting credit was in Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine but the first time I saw Elijah after that great trilogy was in Sin City, and the second time in Lexi Alexander's Hooligans (aka: Green Street Hooligans) back in December 2005 (in that year, 2005, Elijah participated in 3 films, having the main role in 2, and the 3, Sin City, Everything Is Illuminated and this one, are truly favourites of mine). I remember seeing parts of Hooligans at my former school and on TV but just yesterday I finally saw again in its entirely (got its R4 DVD last week for like $2, and as bonus material on that DVD there's only a 4 or so minutes interview with Elijah that ends with him sending greetings to his Mexican fans) and I say finally since back in 2005 I loved it, actually just as much as I did yesterday.
Elijah Wood was a good choice: he plays Matt Buckner, Harvard student, great Harvard student, former Harvard student at the beginning of the film actually. He was really close to finish the journalism career yet his roommate, his cocaine-addict roommate from a powerful family I guess I don't have to go on. So at the beginning of the film we have the Matt that didn't fought at all in order to try not to get expelled from Harvard few months before getting the diploma and at the end the one that decided to fight to get his ticket back to Harvard after he spend some time in London (yeah! He took the 10 grand of the cocaine- addict and practically will end with him). The title of the film says all certainly, Matt's sister (lovely Claire Forlani) lives in London and she is married to the brother (Marc Warren) of the current leader of the Green Street Elite (Charlie Hunnam is Pete Dunham), the firm of the East London club West Ham United
Words of Pete: "West Ham United, mediocre football, topnotch firm. Arsenal, great football sh*t firm. Tottenham, sh*t football and sh*t firm". Certainly there's some rejoice for football fans like myself, I mean the love for that great sport is certainly present. The film sure is typical not only because we have in Matt the outsider who likes baseball better than football, the "Yank" ("for f*** sake stop saying soccer!") who will enter to the world of the firms and gain the respect of even the one that was always the hard member of the firm (Leo Gregory plays Bovver) but also because we have all the other typical elements, you know journalism is the thing that will put Matt in real problems with the members of the firm when he is already part of them (and that leads to the most dramatic part of the film), with the brother of Pete we have the character that once was part of the world of the firmsI guess I don't have to go on. Yet I'm OK this time with the typical elements (but I must say the music choice was not the best, especially that song in the fight of the GSE against the Millwall hooligans), Hooligans is simply a personal favourite, certainly not a masterpiece, it's just a terrific piece of entertainment with terrific acting (hey that actor that plays Matt's father sort of look at times like De Niro)... I'm forever blowing bubbles, pretty bubbles in the air!