GREEN STREET HOOLIGANS

cast :: Elijah Wood, Charlie Hunnam, Claire Forlani, Marc Warren...

director :: Lexi Alexander

writer(s) :: Lexi Alexander, Dougie Brimson, Josh Shelov



review date :: 09/19/05
written by :: suj
rating :: 8/10

THE PLOT_________________

A wrongfully expelled Harvard undergrad moves to London, where he is introduced to the violent undeworld of soccer hooliganism.

THE REVIEW_________________

I really know nothing about soccer, I mean football, besides the fact that you use your feet to kick a ball into a very large net. I've been told that it’s the biggest sport in the world, it’s all the rage in Europe. Perhaps the reason that I don't really know much about Football is the fact that I'm a secluded comic-book nerd who fears all things sports-related. So, when I stumbled upon Lexi Alexander's Green Street Hooligans it opened me up to a whole new world, a whole new outlook, it brought me to place of blood, passion, honor, and glory. Though, the film doesn't actually have football as its focus I can probably right now say that football is my new favorite sport not so much for the actual physical aspects, but for the bloody intensity of its fans.

The film explores the extreme rough-and-tumble of street gangs (or “firms” as they are called in the film) for whom Football is everything. The movie is fierce and riveting, it comes of like a Football induced Fight Club. The fights are engrossed with bloody intensity and the constant desire for violent fights makes London feel like a war zone. And Alexander shoots and cuts these scenes with energy and importance; she fills the screen with the right amount brooding bravado and all out badassness (I know that’s not a word).

In-between the violence Lexi Alexander paints the picture with two main points, that being: family is where you find it, and violence can be as intoxicating as a drug. And its here she is able to build an intense undying bond between the cast of characters in the 'firm' as she paints them to be a family of support. With that notion it can easily be seen why one can be drawn into this chaos and even embrace the worthless violence. This insight makes the film both overwhelmingly significant and genuinely stimulating, as it seems to show that brutal thuggish aggression actually makes for being righteous.

The actors in this film exude with the rage and the passion. They find meaning inside the mayhem. Elijah Wood is compelling as the fish out of water Matt, but it’s Charlie Hunnam (fucking Lloyd of the great short lived TV show "Undeclared") who rises above all. He plays firm leader Pete with just the right amount cool badass, and pride for his firm and it’s just a fucking great performance. He's the Tyler Durden to Woods' Narrator (or Jack). To conclude, the film isn’t perfect as evident in the third act as the flick slides down to a couple of clichéd turns (betrayal, revenge and discovery). But it all gels in a way in order to get to the my-gang vs. your-gang climactic sequence. In all, the film is just one hell of a ride and like I said the film is fierce as it is riveting and the fights are engrossed with bloody intensity. Good Movie.