awaydays (2009)

the closing film of the bradford international film festival, awaydays from director pat holden and based upon the book by kevin sampson proved to be largely entertaining but ultimately rather disappointing. awaydays would at first appear to be a product of the subgenre of "the football hooligan film", a subgenre which, for this viewer at least, would potentially qualify for the title of "worst subgenre of all time". the likes of lexi alexander's green street and the danny dyer starring the football factory are genuinely terrible films, the problem of which stems from the fact that neither actually tackle (pun intended) the problem at hand, in the respect that they dont actually answer for the subject at hand, and seemingly celebrate the vile nature of what is being portrayed on-screen. there is no remorse, no real consequence and very little conscience at hand, which are exactly the things that one would expect from the portrayal of such dispicable behaviour. alas awaydays is largely removed from the negatives fo what has gone before, which in itself is a point worth celebrating, although it does lack severely outside of this one particularly positive area.

the familiar story of an outsider looking to be a part of a gang made up of people he aspires to be like, awaydays features twin great turns from its two young leads, both of whom are making their feature film debuts. liam boyle, as the genuinely likeable elvis is especially strong, in a performance that has a good chance of genuine crossover appeal into mainstream cinema. nicky bell is great as the young outsider, who strikes up an almost romantic friendship with elvis en route to becoming a part of the firm. visually the film is very strong too. it reminded a lot of anton corbijn's joy division biopic control, with the pace at times reminiscent of corbijn's film too. awaydays lacks the authentic feel that control had in abundance though, and at times feels like a fred perry commercial (everyone is far too clean and fitted).

the soundtrack to awaydays, featuring the likes of magazine, kraftwerk and the obligatory joy division is the highlight of the picture, bringing to mind christopher petit's radio on in its jukebox-like nature. the sheer fact that a film with a relatively small budget features such a strong soundtrack ought to be commended.

the films failings, which ultimately bring the entire picture down lie in its largely disjointed structure. perhaps this is intentional, in fact i am of the attitude that it probably is, but the nature of the flow is so unreliable that its problem is glaringly obvious when apparent. the running time doesnt help either, with the film being at least 30 minutes too long, although the editing nazi in me would trim 50 minutes, streamlining the whole thing.

despite being largely unimpressed with the film myself, i have a feeling that awaydays will be pretty successful when it reaches cinemas in june.