Writer-director Meadows knows this turf intimately: the story has deep autobiographical roots. He knows there were skinheads, like Woody and his friends, who had no truck with racism or the National Front. Then there were those like Combo (Stephen Graham), fresh out of prison, who turned their rage against immigrants and vowed to “take England back.” The impressionable Shaun, drawn to power and looking for father figures, switches his allegiance to the charismatic Combo, and “This Is England” takes a scary, violent turn. There’s nothing schematic or predictable about the way the story plays out. The characters, especially the terrifying but conflicted Combo, brilliantly played by Graham, keep surprising us. Turgoose, a non-pro, is a natural—rough-edged, volatile, irresistible. Meadows’s tale of childhood’s end careers from comedy to horror without missing a vital, ska-inflected beat. Like “The 400 Blows,” which it evokes in its final images, it has the feel of a classic coming-of-age story. It’s the sleeper of the summer.
