User Reviews

Although not quite comparable, this film reminded me somewhat of THE SIXTH SENSE, in which an entertaining movie frustratingly missing greatness is suddenly transformed into something much richer and more complex by a startling climax. Shane Meadows is one of the few filmmakers today who actually understands the meaning of irony, that it's not a synonym for sarcasm, that it isn't just a case of saying the opposite of what you mean. Meadows contrives to lead his viewer up a particular path of emotions and meanings before pulling back at the crucial moment to reveal, in their horror, its full implications. Topically, refreshingly, it is also one of the most sensible films about fascism in a long time.

Knock-Knock, a gangly redhead with back problems, and Romeo Brass, the chip-guzzling offspring of a failed interracial marriage, are best mates, although their friendship must be beneath the surface, so joyless and antagonistic does it seem. Both live in home environments that aren't actually welcoming, though in no way dysfunctional. One day, Knock-Knock is being bullied by older boys, and when Romeo gets involved, a ruckus ensues, stopped by Morrell, a bizarre, hooded petty thief probably in his 20s, who looks like a dim James Coburn, and speaks in the oddest, over-emphatic parody of Alan Partridge. He befriends the boys, and gets Romeo to ask his beautiful sister, Ladine, to go out with him.

Knock-Knock plays a relatively harmless joke on Morrell, which results in him looking mildly foolish in front of Ladine. At the same time, Romeo moves in with Knock-Knock when his brutal dad comes back after being thrown out by his new lover, parking his van outside the house. Morrell seems like a harmless eccentric, but on a seaside trip he threatens Knock-Knock for humiliating him, and the two boys drift apart: Romeo spending all his time with Morrell, Knock-Knock undergoing a serious back operation, and recovering alone in his room. When Morrell finally gets Ladine to his house, but doesn't get the enthusiastic response he expects, the stage is set for violent confrontation.

BRASS is brilliantly multi-layered, but, until that climax, is a little disappointing. Compared to the inspired stylisation of SMALLTIME, in which music, style, dialogue and performances offered a distanced and contrived, yet perversely truthful portrait of petty crooks on the make, the more conventional presentation here, reminiscent (a cliche, but true I'm afraid) of a BBC TV drama, seems a little regressive. The chief result of this is that it makes the still stylised performances, situation and humour seem unrealistic and a little phoney.

Once you adjust to this, though, minor pleasures are legion. There is great truth and emotional empathy in the friendship of the boys, its rupture and eventual reconciliation. Although the twee guitar music is laid on a bit thick, Meadows achieves some sublime epiphanies out of his mundane material, in particular the gorgeous swimming pool sequence early on.

And although the film largely focuses on the two friends, it does not follow their point of view. Caricature isn't always avoided, but Meadows has a great sense of adult sadness and failure unavailable to the boys - Romeo's mother, exasperated with her son, obviously carrying horrendous scars from a past only tacitly alluded to, torn with confusion over how to deal with her errant husband; her daughter Ladine, beautiful and smart, yet forced to make do with a psychotic loser; Knock-Knock's mum, always caught in immobile silence, stuck with a childish husband who has to bully little children to feel powerful, and would rather watch telly then visit his son.

The evocation of a stagnant midland town, which doesn't seem to have changed since the 1970s, is masterly and sad. The comedy, though often obvious, is hilarious, arising as much from simple slapstick, as from the boys' precocious worldview, the adult's often infantile behaviour or the strangeness of Morrell.

Kudos have rightly been offered all round to Paddy Considine, but it's a remarkably odd great performance, not naturalistic at all, but a series of initially amusing tics and mannerisms that soon become very scary and doubly moving because of his evident inability to control them. Such is his childlike nature, we don't actually find it odd that he should want to hang around with younger boys until elders start saying so, so that our response becomes so socially conditioned as to leave us vulnerable for the climax.

What is especially difficult is that Morrell's seeming reactions don't fit his emotions - he doesn't seem too humiliated after Knock-Knock's joke, and even gets a date out of it, which is what he wanted, so when he menaces him by the seaside, it is truly alarming, we've actually built up quiet a store of sympathy for him.

But the climax is the thing, and I won't spoil it for you; suffice to say that it's the most powerful sequence British cinema has managed in years, that any society needing thuggery to save its very obvious helplessness is very disturbing, and that the happy ending, replete with Union Jack, is morally sickening, yet oddly moving.

Shane Meadows bleak and distinctive debut, 'TwentyFour Seven', attracted well-deserved attention for being poetically shot in black and white, and for starring Bob Hoskins. Hoskins reappears in a minor role in his second film, the criminally ignored 'A Room for Romeo Brass', another portrait of life among the poor of Nottingham. This movie is much funnier than its predecessor, with hilarious dialogue complemented by photography that makes both the suburbs and their flat surrounding countryside appear desolate but beautiful, and a haunting (but not overbearing) folk-rock soundtrack, featuring (among others) cult band Sunhouse. But a layer of darkness lies close below the surface. Paddy Considine made his name as weirdo loser Morell, a character the film treats with sympathy even though he is evidently a danger to its child heroes: a welcome contrast to the Hollywood world where oddballs are either really all right (and actually not that odd), or pure evil. But there are also great performances from (among others) as Andrew Shim as Romeo, Vivky McClure as his sister and James Higgins as his friend's useless dad. What really stands out in this super film are the odd, unglorified moments that completely shift one's perception of what is going on; such as the first indications of Morell's manipulativeness; the moment when Romeo, not usually the most adult of teenagers, grows instantaneously into the role of man of the house on the reappearance of his own, unwanted father; and, near the end, when his friend's dad, who until this point has appeared a man of no qualities whatsoever, offers himself as sacrifice in order to protect the boys. The stunning combination of human weakness and courage revealed in that moment is truly profound. Meadows, meanwhile, is truly a genius. Watch this film.

Made in 1999 by the talented Shane Meadows, A ROOM FOR ROMEO BRASS is a comedy drama about a pair of middle school best friends and a stranger that rumbles his way into their lives.

While fending off a couple, older soccer bullies, Romeo and Gavin are assisted by a stranger named Morell, a lanky twenty-something who though initially seems nice enough, has some serious deep seated issues. Anyhow, the three instantly befriend, and before anyone knows it, Morell is one of the boys. Hanging out, laughing it up, driving around; things seem reasonable enough. It isn't until Morell asks to meet Romeo's sister do things suddenly change for the worse, and a simple prank by Gavin has the sensitive Morell pushing the friends apart.

Through intimidation does Morell succeed, and as you continue to watch his character, it's quite obvious that despite his age, Morell emulates his younger friends, only worse; bullying the boys, and inevitably, everyone in his path too cowardly to stand up for themselves.

The film is a great character study of friends growing apart, family change, adult responsibilities in a child's world, and where your allegiances will always lie.

Paddy Considine is a tour de force as Morell. Every single scene he is in is memorable, maintaining an awkward and darkly humorous atmosphere from start to finish. The whole of the cast is actually great, very authentic, which only adds to the film's earnest and frightening nature.

Great film from across the pond. Paddy Considine should have been nominated for an Oscar for this one.

I was really looking forward to this one, after thoroughly enjoying Dead man shoes, which was a great film....

The movie starts and the intro segments begin to play, introducing the two boys Romeo and Gavin. My first thought was how terrible the actor who played Gavin was (Ben Marshall). He appeared to be unnatural, annoying and generally sounded like he was reading off a script. But i was willing to look past that...

A good 25 minutes in and i'm still waiting for something interesting to happen. Morell (Paddy Considine) had been introduced and had appeared to have developed a strange relationship with the boys, and i was left wondering why the boys parents would even let their boys be associated with this strange man, who appeared to be 'not quite the full ticket' in the first place.

The scene in the clothes shop where Morell was dressed in a shell suit delivering gifts to Romeo's sister was cringe worthy, and there was no way in hell that his sister would have had anything to do with this weirdo after that performance, which makes the film seem even more unrealistic when she agrees to go on a date with him...The kissing scene was even more far fetched, and this just wouldn't happen in the real world, even if she did feel slightly sorry for him...

The film takes a sinister turn shortly after this and provides the first bit of action...My heart skipped a beat when Morell pulls out a knife on Gavin, and it was a quite a random shock. I thought 'ok' this film is going somewhere now...But when Romeo returns from the ice cream truck and finds his 'best' friend crying with his head in his hands, there is no way that romeo would just disregard it the way he did, considering he had been so loyal to him from the start. He would have demanded to know what was wrong and would have been suspicious that Morell had done something...

I thought Morell would start terrorising Gavin after this but nothing happened. I guess his revenge was taking Romeo away from him...

The film just plods along with minimal action and you are left wondering why Romeo has abandoned his friend so easily and why he is so reluctant to even have anything to do with him. And i was also left wondering why his parents had not wised up to the situation and why they were still letting romeo hang around with Morell.

When Morell turns on romeo, after a failed attempt to bed his sister (which nearly resulted in rape), and proceeds to follow him around its obvious how the film will end (Frank Harper saving the day).

The scene at the end, where Morell is in Gavin's front garden refusing to leave, and seeking revenge is flawed. Is there no police in this town??? The first thing you would do if there was a psycho waiting outside your house is call the police. Not go out there and confront him yourself.

Romeo's dad arrives and gives Morell a minor beating. A very minor beating, considering this man had attempted to rape his daughter, and attack his son, and then stalk him.

I was left feeling unsatisfied after that.

Although i have not said many good things about this film, i will say that i did enjoy the rare bits of action the movie provided, and the general story line was good. It just had too many flaws for my liking and was slow in parts.

The final scene in the garden was horrible, and the magic show was unfunny and yet again quite cringe worthy.

This film is good in parts, buts lets face it, its no classic.

I'm guessing these high reviews are from die hard Shane Meadows fans, who will appreciate anything he does.

5 out of 10 from me.

'A Room For Romeo Brass' is a startling piece of work and one I was quite unprepared for. I had seen some of Shane Meadow's earlier work (Twenty Four Seven, Smalltime, and Where's The Money Ronny?) and been very impressed by it but Romeo Brass is so far ahead of anything the director had done before that it knocked me sideways. Firstly the movie is a small scale drama with more emotional insight than the most epic of Hollywood movies. It is filled with stunning performances, witty dialogue and so many small moments that just feel true. For me, it's biggest achievement is the way it perfectly captures that time when you are young and your best friend is the most important thing in the world to you. The thought of them abandoning you is pure torture. This is something I had not seen represented in films before to such an extent. If you haven't seen this film yet than stop reading this and go and watch it because the film plays better the less you know about it. To discuss the film properly it is impossible not to reveal some potential PLOT SPOILERS. Like how the film throws the audience a complete curve about thirty minutes in when Morrell's character changes from a humorous man-child to a deranged psychopath. This moment is handled so well and one of the film's chief assets is the stunning performance by Paddy Considine (Romeo Brass is, amazingly, his debut). For my money Considine is Britain's most exciting actor currently working. His range is staggering. (See 'In America' where he even manages to act Samantha Morton off the screen!) The two young leads are mighty impressive too. Watching Romeo Brass is an absolute pleasure. One moment it is hilarious, the next terrifying. There is a wonderful generosity of spirit to the film. Like the work of another of my absolute favourite film makers, Paul Thomas Anderson, there is an emphasis on the quiet dignity and humanity of everyday folk. Nowhere is this better encapsulated than in the (absolutely terrifying sequence) where Gavin's father, previously something of a good for nothing type, kneels down to be sacrificed to protect his family. I have seen posted on the notice board that some viewers feel that this character is a wimp for his actions. But the sheer dignity, the reserves of humanity, expressed by him there is incredible. The film also captures violence very well in that it doesn't glamourise it, it shows what a messy, frightening, degrading experience it is. After watching the film I had to sit down and smoke some cigarettes because it really rang true for me. This film is the best British film I have seen for years. It's right up there with Shallow Grave and The Third Man. As such I think it's criminally under rated. One of the reasons for this I feel is the way it was marketed. I caught the film recently on DVD. The reason I missed it at the cinema was not that I was unaware of it but that the posters of a large pair of pants didn't exactly inspire me. This film has nothing to do with pants! If any British film should be advertised with a picture of a pair of pants it is Love Actually (and in that case the pants should be skid-marked) not this miraculous film. Go and watch Romeo Brass. Tell your friends, tell complete strangers, spread the word, the following starts here!

In some ways A Room For Romeo Brass is quite an unusual film as it doesn't really have much of a story.

Essentially it's a coming-of-age story and is a film that explores the value of friendship. Romeo (Andrew Shim) and Knock Knock (Ben Marshall) are best friends at the start and as the film progresses they slowly begin to drift apart when Morell (Paddy Considine) arrives on the scene. I think the point that Meadows was trying to make here was to show how easily kids can be led astray and also how impressionable kids can be (the idea that they perhaps think it's good to hang out with someone older).

Some other plus points that this film gets is that Meadows does try and look at things from both sides of the fence; Knock Knock's mum and dad are both together and present a relatively stable family home - although the 'father' character does have some issues which Meadows never really explores. On the other side of the fence (literally) we have Romeo's family who consist of a single mum scraping by on very little money and who's doing the best to bring up her two children. All the while she's also trying to keep her ex-husband away from the kids (again we never really learn his failings). What I liked about this aspect of the film is that it felt balanced and by making the two families very different Meadows gives the film a sense of realism - when thinking about it Romeo and Knock Knock are quite different as well. This is one thing that Shane Meadows excels at and once again I'm prepared to take my hat off to him.

Of course the real reason to watch this film is for Paddy Considine's performance. Considine had the difficult task of portraying a character with several layers - clearly he's socially awkward, isn't particularly intelligent, but it's his increasingly unhinged behaviour that makes him truly terrifying. If we stick with his dark side then it's quite clear that he's a control freak, all the scenes with Romeo, the scene with Romeo's father, the date with Romeo's sister, the scene near the end with Knock Knock's dad - these scenes to me were all about Morell trying to control those around him. In the scene with Knock Knock's dad, Morell actually turns round and says 'I can't believe he's actually doing it' which to me just reinforces my point. The last scene with Morell where Romeo's dad intervenes when Morell is attacking Knock Knock's dad was a very good scene as it highlights how weak and cowardly Morell was as a person whilst also demonstrating that Romeo's dad wasn't the bad person that we perhaps initially believed him to be.

I've already mentioned that Considine was amazing, but so was everyone here and all the supporting cast were gritty and believable.

I did have some issues with this picture and the obvious issue is its lack of narrative (which may leave some people lost whilst watching this film). Meadows also doesn't flesh the characters out too well here, but again Considine's performance and character do more than enough to make up for any of its shortcomings.

I enjoyed this film, but it felt a little uneven to me and only felt effective in parts. It's not quite as good as Meadows other films such as Dead Man's Shoes and This Is England. However, it does have some strong characters and a gritty realism about it, but as mentioned Paddy Considine is what really makes this film worthy of your time.