Directed by:
Derrick BorteScreenplay:
Matt BrownCinematography:
Hubert TaczanowskiComposer:
Bryan SentiCast:
Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Dougray Scott, Natascha McElhone, Tom Hughes, Daniel Huttlestone, Nell Williams, Meredith Ostrom, Paul Blackwell, Jeff Leach (more)Plots(1)
London, 1979. Margaret Thatcher is now Prime Minister and there's a significant heightening in social, political and racial unrest. Shay (Daniel Huttlestone) is a bright-eyed teenager attempting to juggle too many suburban familial responsibilities following the departure of his free-spirited mother. When his broken-hearted father is injured at work and Shay finds himself under even more pressure, he decides it's time to reconnect with his estranged mother. Along the way, he falls for striking, confident punk girl Vivian (Nell Williams) and together they experience that white hot epiphany when a new kind of music sparks teenagers on a profound, life-changing level. The explosive emergence of Punk might seem an incongruous setting for a coming-of-age film, but director Derrick Borte balances superb performances – including a stellar turn by Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Joe Strummer – with an energy akin to The Clash's sound to produce an uplifting and memorably bittersweet comedy drama. (London Film Festival)
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Reviews (2)
Essentially a simple story about a boy who had to take care of the whole family because the mother is an addict and essentially ran away from them, and the father had an accident, leaving him bedridden for several weeks. It's all set in 1970s London, with The Clash playing. This music just resonates with me and fits perfectly with Britain.
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What good does it serve that the film is betting on the punk underground of the 1970s led by “The Clash”, when everything else is a weak concoction of what could be experienced and could happen at the time. Even then, London Town is a nice and nonoffensive drama about a family, whose children are the first to learn what it means to resist the system. From this point of view, it is nice… nice and nonoffensive. Too little for a movie with a punk background.
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