'THIS IS ENGLAND' FORCEFULLY PROBES GROWING UP ANGRY IN THE 1980S.

Byline: BOB STRAUSS

>FILM CRITIC

British writer-director Shane Meadows makes "This Is England" his most personal film yet. Like "TwentyFourSeven," "A Room for Romeo Brass," "Once Upon a Time in the Midlands" and others, it's concerned with coming of age, and what it means to be a man, in his nation's working-class heartland.

But Meadows' own youthful involvement with skinhead culture, coupled with vivid memories of the Margaret Thatcher era, lend "This Is England" more immediacy and passion than ever seen before in a Meadows film.

Set in 1983 in a small, isolated city, much of the movie is from 12-year-old Shaun's point of view. Played by compelling newcomer Thomas Turgoose, who could be mistaken for a bulldog pup if he didn't walk upright, Shaun grieves for a father who was killed in the Falkland Islands War and is bullied at school.

An older, mixed-race bunch of skinhead fashion victims welcome Shaun into their gang, and soon he's shocking his mum with curfew violations and demands for Doc Martens boots. But she's actually fairly cool, and quickly susses that the bigger kids, delinquent though they may be, are sincere about keeping an eye on her otherwise friendless child.

Until, that is, an older skin, Combo (Stephen Graham), gets released from prison and returns to the fold spouting racist, National Front rhetoric. Combo insists that his mates choose sides between mindless partying and mindless partying with the intention to harm nonwhites.

Shaun, catastrophically, chooses to run with the idealogue.

Graham, whom Meadows reportedly did not know has some Jamaican ancestry when he cast him, can certainly work up a head of hate-fueled charisma. But he and Meadows also endeavor to bring out the bigot's vulnerability. The results, while a bit predictable, do go a long way toward humanizing a monster. How interesting that fundamentally is, however, remains an individual viewer's call; Shaun is the more fully realized character.

Meadows is note perfect at capturing the underevolved but comforting camaraderie that sitting around stoned, breaking laws together and sharing the stupidest political ideas can create.

He's also dead-on accurate about the ways in which music (great ska score here) and dope dealing can instantly overcome the most deep-seated prejudice -- until, of course, that doesn't work anymore.

"This Is England" is a coarse yet style-conscious, furiously angry film about the tough, tough struggle to put anger aside -- not because one wants to, but because one must.

Bob Strauss [phone]

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THIS IS ENGLAND - Three stars

>Not rated: violence, drug use, racism, language, children in jeopardy.

>Starring: Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham.

>Director: Shane Meadows.

>Running time: 1 hr. 38 min.

>Playing: Nuart, West L.A.

>In a nutshell: An unsettling look at racial hate doesn't say anything new, but says it with strong, forceful honesty.

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Newcomer Thomas Turgoose is the friendless 12-year-old Shaun, who falls in with skinheads during England's Thatcher era.