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Somers Town
R1 - America - Film Movement Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson (11th March 2010). |
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The Film
 Somers Town, a small district of greater London, is home to thousands of new immigrants each year who arrive to the hub-like area finding a home in one of the cold gray tower blocks that overlooks the city. The region is the center point of a railway interconnect, joining tracks from North and East England, The Midlands and Scotland: Euston St. Pancras and Kings Cross. It is also the core location for Shane Meadows' critically acclaimed feature film, the aptly titled “Somers Town.” Winner of numerous awards, the film’s stars, Thomas Turgoose and Piotr Jagiello, both won Best Actor in a Narrative Feature at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival and Meadows' film also took home the Michael Powell Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival (that festivals top honor). The production was also nominated for Best Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Director and Best British Independent Film at the British Independent Film Awards. Released in the UK during late August of 2008, “Somers Town” now arrives on US shores via the Film Movement DVD series. Mugged, robbed, left penniless and without his luggage within the first few hours of being on the streets of London, Tomo (Thomas Turgoose), a young teen looking to start a new life, is having a bit of rotten luck. We’re told little else about him, or what he’s doing in the city, other than a rather vague line about running away from home, because he had nothing back there for him. Soon, out of desperation more than anything else, Tomo befriends Marek (Piotr Jagiello), a lonely Polish boy who hides behind his second-hand SLR taking artsy photographs, while, most nights, doing his best to avoid his fathers swigging, drunken fists. The two lads bicker over Marek’s latest subject, a French waitress named Maria (Elisa Laswoski), who pinches the boy’s cheeks and laughs at their awkward advances each time they meet at the café where she works. When Maria doesn’t show up at work one day, Tomo and Marek are disheartened to learn from the shop owner that she’s “gone back to Paris.” What follows is a day’s slow slide into complete depravity, as the boys bond over their lost love, newfound friendship and a few bottles of cheap liquor. Simple though it may be, “Somers Town” is genuine, intense, poignant and, despite the black-and-white photography by Natasha Braier, a completely unpretentious affair. Meadows' direction is free flowing; often framing scenes in single takes and few cuts. With the assistance of a two-camera setup, he captures sequences in an organic, unobtrusive way and the actor’s performances are all the more realistic and natural because of it. This realism and raw truth that exudes from the screen by both lead actors is a real treat, and makes the movie all that more impressionable and easy on one’s cinematic senses. Don’t mistake my praise – yes, “Somers Town” is deep and involving and emotionally resonant; it’s just also, really, really funny. The humor is often subtle, but undeniably charming and one of the film’s greatest assets. Turgoose and Jagiello play off each other quite well, and again, because of the light, familiar way in which Meadows handles scenes, they have incredible chemistry. You get a real sense of their (characters) friendship and how it develops from a rivalry into something much more meaningful. Although quintessentially British and unquestionably “indie”, “Somers Town”, it’s themes and simple story, written by Paul Fraser, are still refreshingly universal and well told. It’s a smart, minimalist picture, but it’s a near perfect little tale. Not totally without fault mind you, but for what it is – a short, cheaply made, personal film, that began life as more of an outline than as real script – the movie is almost flawless. “Somers Town” is a real pleasure and something that I definitely recommend.
Video
Shot on 16mm and super8 film, mostly in black and white, and on a near nonexistent budget, I can easily say that of the four Film Movement DVDs I received over this past week, “Somers Town” is by far the worst looking of the bunch, somewhat because of the source and mostly because of the inefficient standard def format. The first thing you’ll notice about this 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is that detail is well below average even for SD, and that the image is awash with poorly compressed film grain and noisy artifacts. Contrast, in the black and white scenes is nice, with a stable and rich grayscale. Whites do run a little hot, but otherwise contrast is one of the strongest areas of discussion here. The color epilogue appears severely flat and washed out. Shot on 8mm these moments are even more noisy and grainy, with even less detail. Oddly, although sporadic at best, minor nicks, dots and specks of damage flash across the screen from time to time. On the plus side the DVD looks to generally replicate the intended style without manipulations like EE or DNR; the downside being that said intended style is not particularly good looking in standard definition due to inadequate compression and an inability to accurately resolve film grain.
Audio
An English/Polish (I guess you’d call that multi-language?) Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo mix (48kHz/224kbps) is provided and there really isn’t much else to say. “Somers Town” is a private film so there’s little in the way of immersive, rollicking sound effects; just dialog front and center and clear, and a bit of music, which is crisp. Unlike some of the other 2-channel mixes I’ve heard from Film Movement, “Somers Town” sounds about right for this type of film, and I can’t imagine much else could be done with the source. Hard-coded English subtitles are included for the Polish portions of the film.
Extras
“Somers Town” actually has a little more to offer in the supplements department compared to most other discs in the Film Movement series. Yes, there’s the standard selection of trailers, the monthly short film and a handful of text-based features, but the DVD also has a 25-minute interview featurette with the cast and crew. Details below: 5 text-based biographies are included for the main cast and director: - Shane Meadows (Director); 2 pages. - Thomas Turgoose (Tomo) - Piotr Jagiello (Marek) - Elisa Laswoski (Maria) - Perry Benson (Graham) “Somers Town – A History” is a text-based feature detailing the housing project and surrounding area where the film primarily takes place. 4 pages. A theatrical trailer for “Somers Town” runs 2 minutes 2 seconds, in anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen. The nice surprise here is the “‘Somers Town’ Interviews” featurette (16x9) runs for 26 minutes 46 seconds. Title cards with a lead in question precede interviews with actors Perry Benson, Thomas Turgoose and Piotr Jagiello, plus director Shane Meadows. It’s not a commentary or detailed documentary but the near half-hour discussion with these four key players from the film is a welcomed addition to the otherwise weak package. This month’s short film, titled “Odd Shoe” (2008) runs for 9 minutes 57 seconds was written and directed by Paul Cotter from the UK. In it a young boy with tattered sneakers discovers life has new meaning when he stumbles upon a brand new pair of leather shoes. The film is presented in window-boxed 2.35:1 widescreen with English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo (48kbps/192kbps) audio. “Also Available from Film Movement” is a simple page of text that lists all of the series’ Year Seven films up until August’s “Somers Town”, including Bohdan Slâma’s “The Country Teacher” (2008) and Fernando Eimbcke’s “Lake Tahoe” (2008). “About Film Movement” includes a short text-based description of the DVD series and features a short trailer advertising the company. The self-explanatory “Trailers from the Film Movement Catalog” rounds off the bonus material found on this DVD. Bonus trailers include: - "Film Movement" spot runs for 30 seconds. - “The Window” which runs for 1 minute 21 seconds. - “The Drummer” which runs for 2 minutes 11 seconds. The UK DVD and Blu-ray release have an hour-long Q&A session with the director that Film Movement decided not to make available to viewers in the US. A shame, as I’d have liked to hear more on the making-of the film and the process by which “Somers Town” came to be.
Packaging
A clear plastic Amaray case houses a single disc. The interior of the case also includes two short essays – one from the filmmaker and one from the disc publisher. “Somers Town” is film eight of year seven.
Overall
At 70 minutes the film is a meager thing that feels like it’s over before it really begins, but “Somers Town” packs greater emotional resonance and has a more genuine heartfelt quality about it than something that could have cost many times over, and might have run twice as long. The DVD is a mixed bag. The black and white 16mm and color super8 film stock translates poorly to standard definition, but the sound mix is decent. Extras are more than I’m used to for a Film Movement release, but not exactly groundbreaking. In all this is worth a look for the film alone, assuming of course that you don’t mind the occasional subtitled sequence and a certain indie, low budget charm.
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