Portrait of the artist as a young skinhead

"This is England" is a sad, sometimes scary film that shows how a young, very vulnerable boy (maybe 10 years old? 12?), only child, father killed in the Falklands (1983), picked on at school, mother's depressed and not able to help much, no other apparent family nearby, gets befriended by some older kids, tough and crazy but friendly and good-hearted. At first all seems reasonably OK, though the boy (Sean) gets way to much exposure to sex, beer, cigarettes and is on the verge of trouble (they bust up some abandoned housing just for kicks). Then, some right-wing skinheads step into the group, and Sean is drawn to them - obviously looking for a strong father figure and protector. This group, many ex-cons, all of them racist thugs, is truly scary, and it's particularly horrifying to see how Sean, and others, can be shaped by their vile ideology. Sean comes to his senses after a particularly horrifying racist attack, and he's young enough to escape unharmed. I suspect the film is quite autobiographical. Has strong resonances for today in the U.S., as we look at Aryan groups, birthers, Tea Party, none of them too far from where the British skinheads and "Nationalists" were in the '80s. It's not a pretty film, not meant to be - all filmed in the depressed northern wastelands (Yorkshire, apparently). Pretty good soundtrack, some heavy-handed use of film clips of the Falklands set against protests and racial attacks. That said, a story quite well told and engaging all the way through. As with all movies about children being bullied, you strongly identify with the child, but this one includes some odd twists as you see him going down a frightful path.