Boston Kickout

When a director's debut film arrives on our screens, it doesn't get much better than a recommendation from Trainspotting auteur Danny Boyle. He thought Paul Hills' Boston Kickout was one of the best British films he saw last year. And in some ways it is, crackling with an honesty and humour which passed previous "youth culture" films like ram-raider flick Shopping by.

Set in Stevenage new town - aligned here with suburban hell - Boston Kickout is essentially a rites-of-passage story with a huge amount of personal investment in it. It is set in the place where director Hills grew up and deals with the struggle to leave and make something of yourself. And, as Hills is still only in his twenties, the agony of a summer waiting for exam results is obviously still very vivid to him. The joys of teenagedom - a dead-end job (quality control in a bakery), random acts of violence (golf club in the hands of the local skinhead) and overwhelming hormones (seduced in the pub toilets) are all portrayed with spot-on precision for those who ever lived in a place where nothing ever happens.

The problem with Boston Kickout is that there's too much detail crammed into it. While only one schooleaver - Phil (John Simm) - is the film's central pivot, the escapades of the other three - one a schizophrenic failed bank robber, another set on marriage while the third charts the fall of the Berlin Wall - distract from both the narrative drive and Phil's own problems, which include both actual and attempted suicide and a flighty Irish cousin.

Nevertheless, Hills is undoubtedly a talent to watch. Already his next project - a take on the 70s northern beauty contest scene entitled Raving Beauties sounds even more promising than this gutsy debut.

Reviewed by Monika Maurer