Shane Meadows: a skilled chronicler of modern England

I'LL never forget the first Shane Meadows film I saw, at the Melbourne International Film Festival in the mid-1990s.

This is England

I'LL never forget the first Shane Meadows film I saw, at the Melbourne International Film Festival in the mid-1990s. His first feature, Small Time, and the short Where's The Money, Ronnie? were screened.

They were rough and ready films with equal parts spunk, humour and drama from the Midlands in England. Wonderful. Meadows clearly knew his constituents and marked himself as a chronicler of a modern England that was similar to but so different from the previous generation's darlings, Mike Leigh, Ken Loach and others.

Then, bang! Within two years, Meadows presented the wonderful little indie dramas Twenty Four Seven and A Room for Romeo Brass. Here was a director to watch.

The feature film output since then has been erratic, meandering from the tough and dramatic to a twaddle (Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee). He has continued to make a withering array of short films and music videos during that period.

In one sense, he appears not to know what to do with a bigger feature film budget, if indeed he wants that budget. In another, he looks as though he is just fine and dandy pottering around in his Midlands and has no designs on being a great British auteur of his generation.

But I can't presume to speak for him. Best I can do is acknowledge the arrival on DVD of the wonderful TV series This is England '86 (MA15+, Icon, 310min, $39.99). The Channel 4 series is based on his best feature film, This is England, although it takes his characters three years on, out of the skinhead scene and into the minor mod revival in Sheffield.

At first glance, the setting and characters are odd, with their peroxide or bowl cuts standing out in a depressed middle England. Gadget, Smell, Lol, Woody and the rest of them look like a more mobile version of The Royle Family.

But that remains one of Meadows's strengths: the bracing authenticity.

The TV form works for Meadows (he already has been commissioned for This is England '88). You amble through this series not expecting the weight he invariably brought to his films. It's refreshing.

This week

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (M)
Disney (285min, $30.99)

Batman Year One (M)
Warner (72min, $34.95)

From Time to Time (PG)
Hopscotch (98min, $29.95)

The Mentalist season three (M)
Warner (1022min, $54.99)