10 Great Movies You'll Only Want To Watch Once

Shane Meadows' brilliant This is England is a game of two halves. The first half is a poignant coming of age tale, the story of a twelve-year-old boy finding acceptance in 1980s England. The second is one of the most brutal and upsetting loss of innocence narratives ever written.

It is unlikely that This is England will have much of an impact on people not actually living in Britain. Americans, for instance, will probably spend more time trying to decipher the characters' thick Midlands accents than getting involved in Shaun's emotional journey. But for Brits - especially those who remember the Thatcher days - it hits incredibly close to home.

Watching Thomas Turgoose's Shaun go from a hot-tempered but good kid to a racist, violent skinhead is both deeply upsetting and incredibly real. Everything about the film is disturbingly authentic, from the costumes to the beautifully natural dialogue to the intense performances, the most memorable of which is Stephen Graham's wonderful turn as skinhead gang leader Combo, truly one of the most frightening characters in 21st century cinema.

The climactic scene, where Combo snaps and brutally beats the gang's only black member into a coma is extremely hard to watch, and will leave you feeling disgusted and hollow afterwards.

This is England is as poetic as it is dark, and its portrayal of discrimination and political extremism is horrifically relevant today.