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4 Stars Green Street Hooligans Dir. by Lexi Alexander Freestly Reasoning
Green Street Hooligans, while covered in blood from start to finish, appeals to the viewers' emotions effectively through the relationship between Matt Buckner and Pete Dunham, portrayed by Elijah Wood and Charlie Hunnam, respectively. Wood's character, an American attending Harvard University, is forcibly removed from school after his roommate's cocaine addiction is planted on him. While this seems to be the hokiest portion of the story, it quickly fades into the background as Buckner moves to London. Upon arrival in London, Wood's character is reunited with his sister and quickly introduced to her husband, her husband's brother, and West Ham United Football Club. This isn't the typical "Let's go watch the match, have a few pints, and I'll explain the rules," introduction to English Football. It's more an, "Here is the pub, here is the match, here is the post-match brawl with away fans," introduction. You know the sort. You are followed down an alley in a dodgy section of East London, only to meet up with some Newcastle United supporters bent on shoving a credit card in your mouth and beating you back to America. Not the most charming way to start a film about brotherhood. It's at this point, with his back against the wall, that Wood's character is reborn as Hunnam comes to rescue him from the most extraordinary pain. The relationship the two engage in is one of friendship beyond any sense of what you or I may know. Director Lexi Alexander describes the firm Buckner enters as, "They are the kind of friends you want to have." That may be an understatement as the men within the Green Street Elite, or GSE, are willing to sacrifice anything for each other, certainly beyond what American tailgaters might exhibit. Alexander makes the effort to centralize the film's focus on the relationships between the characters, but it is sometimes overshadowed by the film's sheer wealth of violence. It's sometimes difficult to view the stylized battles between the rival firms, particularly the conflict between the GSE and Millwall's firm. In reality, this is the most bloody rivalry in Britain and the film does it justice, to say the least. While one may be distracted by the rampant clipping and cuts in fight scenes, Alexander portrays the moments between Wood and Hunnam like any friendship you have ever hoped to have. Built upon a certain kinship and brotherhood that is mostly found in war films, Buckner seems to look to Dunham as inspiration for what he can become as a man. Buckner experiences in the streets of England teach him the value of a loyal friend. Corny, but the film emphasizes this effectively. There is nothing like friends to give you confidence, and Wood plays this up in a dramatic pop-collared transformation. While the film is rife with gratuitous violence capable of making the queasier viewer walk out and the more steadfast uneasy, the film's focus on friendship comes across well. It's not a perfect picture, but an excursion into the mind of a gang member, a character who is more readily understood by those leaving the theater than those entering.
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