Boston Kickout
((BRITISH))
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Phil ... John Simm
Shona ... Emer McCourt
Ted ... Andrew Lincoln
Matt ... Nathan Valente
Steve ... Richard Hanson
Robert ... Marc Warren
Ray ... Derek Martin
Prologue, set in London, 1982, has a boy coming home to find his mother dangling from a rope at the top of the stairs. Action then moves to Stevenage, one of the characterless, postwar concrete towns built to accommodate the overspill from the big cities. The boy, Phil (John Simm), and his widowed father , Ray (Derek Martin), have moved there in the hope of starting a better life.
With constant shifts in tone -- not all of them entirely harmonious -- between realism, light comedy, aimless-youth angst and emotional rawness, the film tracks the relationships between Phil (now in his late teens), his chums and their families. When his best friend, Ted (Andrew Lincoln), rebels violently against the presiding emptiness and disappears, Phil is left with something of a hole in his life.
Sharing this void with him are Matt (Nathan Valente) and Steve (Richard Hanson). The first is content to marry young and settle into a static existence, and the second is an emotionally fragile kid who eventually goes to pieces.
Phil's options -- a dead-end job, college with no guarantee of employment at the end, or acceptance of an invitation to take part in a robbery -- are broadened momentarily by a holiday romance with his more worldly Irish cousin Shona (Emer McCourt). She encourages him to further his talent as a photographer. Her departure, however, results in a rude emotional awakening for Phil and, indirectly, a suicide attempt for his still-grieving father.
While this kind of youth-in-suburbia territory was been widely chartered elsewhere, Hills saves matters to a substantial degree with a mostly likable bunch of characters and an easy affinity with the young actors. Roger Bonnici's agile camerawork, Melanie Adams' similarly brisk editing and Robert Hartshorne's punchy music are significant contributions.
Title refers to the local teen sport, basically a destructive, latenight rampage through the backyards of a neighborhood.
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