England Is Mine (2017)

I guess people give this movie a crappy review because it's not your average Hollywood movie. It's not a Hollywood movie. It rises above that. It makes you work a bit, and it lasts long when you return to the music of Morrissey. I loved the music of The Smiths and Morrissey in the 80s and 90s. I was just a kid. The music was cool and it bombarded the airwaves. As I grew older, I paid much more attention to the lyrics and was surprised how arrogant, cynical, and depressing the lyrics could be. As a kid, I just liked the melodies of songs like "Ask" "There is a Light That Never Goes Out" and "Girlfriend in a Coma". I liked Morrissey's voice too. After paying more attention to the lyrics, I had much more respect for the music. It is bloody brilliant. With respect to what Morrissey brought to the music with his lyrics and smooth crooning, this movie attempts to dig deep into the soul of Steven Patrick Morrissey, which is a daring venture, considering his worldwide droves of competing and critical followers. I believe this movie accomplished its goal. The naysayers will argue that the movie is boring and vague, or that the filmmaker's representation is unflattering and noxious to the legend that is Morrissey. To them I can only say, "Go back and listen to the lyrics that create a window through which you might understand who Steven Patrick Morrissey was and really is."

I can encapsulate working class Manchester of this time in one sentence: Cigarette burns in bus seats with the smell of stale urine in the air.I like what's been done here. The Smiths (& Morrissey himself) create such devotion in fans (especially those who were there at the time) that any conceived wrong foot in a film relating to that band would be gnawed upon by a multitude of bedroom martyrs; especially in this internet age.Nevertheless, what the film makers have done with England Is Mine sidesteps this problem, for they've made a film not about MORRISSEY, but rather Stephen (Steve) Morrissey - a young Mancunian man suffering from depression within in a time & area of depression; The Smiths aren't even a whiff away.It's hard to emphasis to those who didn't experience it, how gray Manchester of the 70s & early 80s was. It was stuck in a polluted puddle of red brick decay, unsure & struggling to break free from its own shadow. In many ways this film (consciously or not) reflects young Steven Morrissey against Manchester of that time. No cliché in sight.P.S. It is slighting disconcerting how much the lead looks like the English comedy actor Alan Davies in the first half of the film.

to start off with, if you're going into this film hoping to see plenty of smiths songs and smiths related stuff, you're going to be disappointed. however this film is a realistic, enlightening and well made insight into a young, socially awkward yet likable Stephen Patrick Morrissey, trying to get his voice heard in the cramped music scene of the 1970/80s. Jack Lowden (Morrissey) who may not really look a lot like Morrissey, does a excellent job of portraying all of his unique characteristics and making him likable in the processes.as a massive smiths fan I was of course disappointed at the absence of any smiths songs, however the music was still very good, using a lot of mid 70s tracks, which is sure to give a lot of older fans nostalgia. the only problem I found was that I originally knew this would obviously be a dramatization like most film biographies, but I then found out later that this is an unauthorized film, meaning that all of this could of possibly been false information, which is a bit of a waste of an hour and a half if it is.altogether though it was a very well made film with lots of style and memorable performances. hopefully a follow-up will be made in the future which focuses more on the smiths and their road to becoming one of the most recognizable bands ever made.

At last, a musical biopic that doesn't throw in cheap references, nor equally cheap laughs, and instead gives us a sober, realistic and not always warm character study of the formative years of one of Britain's best loved singer-songwriters. But be warned - if you have no interest in Steven Patrick Morrissey, indeed if you have a passing love for the band and aren't too bothered in learning how he came up with the lyrics that he did, then much of ENGLAND IS MINE might not do a lot for you. This film is definitely one for the proper fans, and for those of us in that position it's a real treat. Lots to love about this one. Jack Lowden might not look a lot like Morrissey but he gets across very well the sense of alienation and perpetual disappointment that surrounds our hero. He's bored and unfulfilled with every aspect of his life, feeling like there's something more out there and yet too shy and not forthcoming enough to go after it. That lack of belonging is something many young people experience - I know I did - and Morrissey is kind of the Dean of that time in life, and Lowden nails it. His friendship with Linder (fantastic Jessica Brown Findlay) shows him finding a rare kindred spirit, and he reacts to the lost chance of success he arrives at briefly with Adam Lawrence's Billy Duffy by doing what we would all like to and retreating to his bedroom.The period detail is excellent - you get the vision of late 70s/early 80s Manchester as a bit of a dive, crammed with lost souls and angry voices, from which Morrissey feels entirely apart. Lovely touches, like the cracked, single pane windows upon which rain hammers, add to to reality. The choice of musical numbers is another bonus. There are no Smiths tracks, given the tale essayed here takes place before the band was formed. Instead we get the 1960s songs that heavily influenced the group's sound, and that's a real bonus. The era before the Smiths existed really feels like another place, another time, bereft of something that they ended up filling. One nice bit of detail, the local venue that exhibits posters for an upcoming Duran Duran concert while Morrissey and Marr (Laurie Kynaston, not in it much) start hammering out the more localised and altogether grittier music and lyrics that would eventually form the Smiths, a great snatch of visual storytelling that the film stuffs in. And if you aren't interested in that, there's the gallows humour of young Mozzer to enjoy, an acerbic wit that would put people off and yet find expression in his words put to Marr's tunes.