Purely Belter

Two teenagers in Newcastle who have dropped out of school, Gerry and Sewell, set themselves a single goal: to buy season tickets for Newcastle United. That takes a thousand pounds and neither has any income. They try everything from collecting cans to theft. The film is not interested in a passion for football. It is interested in the one concrete dream available inside poverty: the ticket here is not entertainment but a certificate of belonging. The film takes the goal seriously and does not hide the violence, drink and hopelessness at home either. The form sits close to British social realism without letting go of humour; the banter between the two boys is its engine. The source is Jonathan Tulloch's novel The Season Ticket. Mark Herman wrote and directed; he had already looked at the class questions of the same region in Brassed Off. Chris Beattie and Greg McLane, the leads, were local non-professionals, and Alan Shearer appears as himself. Who it is for: viewers who like British regional class stories and football culture. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a sweet youth comedy. The film turns hard at times and refuses to end on an easy victory.