Critic Reviews
86
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
positive
22(96%)
mixed
1(4%)
negative
0(0%)
Showing 23 Critic Reviews
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Metascore
Metascore
100
One of the year's best movies...It's one of the simplest and best re-creations of downscale urban England during the gritty post-punk years ever put on screen, and it's both upsetting and very funny.
100
The script and direction are virtually flawless.
100
As its title implies, This Is England isn't a hyperstylized head-trip a la "Trainspotting" but a straightforward calling to account.
100
Masterfully charted and acted.
91
Taut, tense, and self-consciously stylish.
90
A modest, near-flawless gem, This Is England is the fifth feature by the young British director Shane Meadows, doing his best work since he first hit the festival scene in the mid-1990s with his hilarious, raw-hewn shorts “Small Time.”
90
It has the feel of a classic coming-of-age story. It's the sleeper of the summer.
90
The result is a film marked by eruptions of brutal violence, but also passages of extraordinary tenderness.
90
The writer-director brilliantly juxtaposes the personal and the political, bookending a stirring coming-of-age drama with the provocative opening and an equally affecting end sequence.
88
This Is England may be best summed up as a "coming-of-age" story that puts aside the clichéd baggage often carried by the description and ultimately ends up being moving, genuinely funny, thought-provoking, and highly recommended.
