shocking realism

Rating: 10/10 (14 November 2005)

Whoa! After having watched it last evening, quite breathless most of the time, I can easily feel the aftertaste in my head and surely hope that it's gonna stay there for a while. Yes, I loved it! It grips you from the first second during the titles, they are disturbing, chaotic and aggressive...like most of the film. The atmosphere during it has a sense of something creeping behind your back all of the time. Especially as we know from the first minute what will happen to the main character and can see how it unfolds little by little. The violence which is quite brutal does well to keep you 100% focused as it is so shockingly real, mostly due to the film-making itself (actors, cinematography, sound and music).
I myself from Iceland not deep in the hooligan culture interpreted this film however more as a semi-true story than a fiction, as I have seen the incredible documentary about the news-reporter who went into the inner circle of the Chelsea-headhunters. So the film was extra shocking due to this, I could not go...it's simply a movie. It felt real.
p.s. also recommend I.D. for those interested in the hooligan genre. Robert Carlyle as a undercover news-reporter gone on a hooli-day :)