Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2372 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-03-25
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 87 minutes

Video Description

DVD Special Features: Director's Video Diary
Director's Commentary
Trailer

Language: English, Dolby Digital
Subtitles: None
1.85:1 widescreen version

Synopsis
In A ROOM FOR ROMEO BRASS, two teenage boys, Romeo (Andrew Shrim) and Knocks (Ben Marshall), whose families live in the same housing development in a small town in the Midlands, England, share a unique friendship. Making jokes that nobody else understands, fighting over little things, being brutally honest with each other, the boys' behavior epitomizes eye-rolling teenage smugness. They both have family problems. Knock's dad is a wierdo who completely ignores him. Romeo's dad is an angry brute. However, the boys seem to get along just fine. That is, until a stranger, Morrell (a truly beguiling Paddy Consadine), appears in town and stirs up trouble. He threatens Knocks, then dominates Romeo. He coerces Romeo into setting up dates with his sexy sister, and challenges him to strangely aggressive martial arts matches. Meanwhile, Knocks has undergone a major operation on his bad back, and is bedridden at home. Romeo is lost and confused. Just when it seems that the boys have grown apart for good, a tragedy brings them, their families, and the whole neighborhood together again.
A gray and moody film with a biting narrative, A ROOM FOR ROMEO BRASS features some gorgeous photography, emotional performances, and most of all, a drifty, perfectly assembled sound track.

From the Back Cover
12 year olds Romeo and Gavin live next door to each other. They're the best of mates with a shared sense of humour that helps them survive in a landscape of comic losers and broken dreams. But their friendship is put to the test by a chance encounter. After a stranger saves them from being beaten up, the boys are only too happy to help their new hero and pal in his quest to date Romeo's sister. Little do they realise they are being drawn into a world of dangerous obsession, violence and desperation; a world that threatens to tear the two friends apart. From acclaimed director Shane Meadows 'A Room For Romeo Brass' is a contemporary coming-of-age story that is as funny as it is frightening.

Customer Reviews

Superb!
This film is one of the best British films ever made, alongside 'Dead mans shoes' - also Shane meadows & Paddy considine - check that out as well!

Myself being a young lad growing up looking up to an older kid who lived round the block this film hits the nail on head on so many levels.


Its hard to write a review without spoiling a lot of it so in a nutshell :

The directing is top notch with a superb soundtrack

The acting is extremely good, especially from Considine & the two main lads in the film ( Shim also pops up in This is england - again a Shane meadows masterpiece)

Paddys ' Dance' is one of the funniest things you will see this year!

The references to a child growing up looking to up to an older lad are superb & spot on, there are so many layers to this film that it will make you laugh, Cry, Cringe but most of all enjoy!

One of the BEST British films ever & one of my top 10 Moves EVER!

*****

A Room
Sets itself up as a typical learning life through unlikely friendship story but then becomes a far more realistic portrayal of the weasels among us and, ultimately, the importance of old family & friends

6/10. Brassed off
Like Shane Meadows' later `This is England', `A Room For Romeo Brass' is a coming of age drama revolving around friends growing up in the working class Midlands. Both films feature friendships tested by the divisive arrival of an influencial older figure. The protagonists in both films seek friendship to escape disappointment or disenfranchisement from family life. While the latter film places this scenario in the context of class conflict in Thatcher's britain and the rise of the skinhead movement, the thematic concerns of `Romeo Brass' are less contemporaneous. Its outsider comes in the surreal shape of Morel (played by the brilliant Paddy Considine), a small-town oddball who takes an instant and ultimately obsessive interest in the eponymous character's sister. Considine is always fascinating to watch (from Meadows' own `Dead Man's Shoes' to Pawel Pawlikowski's `My Summer of Love') and he is by turns hilarious and terrifying here as the volatile Morel.

For all Considine's brilliance on screen there is something lacking in this film's purpose. Whereas This is England's small-scale drama manages to address wider social decline in a specific historical context, A Room For Romeo Brass` concerns are perhaps not broad enough. It is certainly not the first film about an obsessive and intimidating individual insinuating himself into family life (cinema is rife with them, from the great to the really poor). Once you take that out of the equation, there is not a great deal else to capture the imagination. Its stark Midlands setting, non-professional actors and a liberal use of improvisation are all classic Meadow's hallmarks - harking back to kitchen sink dramas of the British New Wave in the 1960s. Coupled with the director's handpicked indie, pop and reggae soundtrack, it is easy to see why his moniker `Scorcese of the Midlands' persists. However, `A Room for Romeo Brass' is simply an enjoyable film, not a very good one, and compares unfavourably to some of his other works.