Critically acclaimed in the U.K. on its release there last year, Shane Meadows’ This Is England never made it into theatres here, though as of this week it’s available on DVD. Set in 1983 Nottingham, at the height of the Falklands War, it’s the story of a misfit 12-year-old (newcomer Thomas Turgoose) who falls in with a gang of skinheads. At first, the crew he hangs out with is comprised of the good, ska-listening, racially integrated skinheads that predated their ugly racist incarnation (can’t forget that skinhead culture originated in Jamaica).

When former crew member Combo (a ferocious, charismatic Stephen Graham) gets out of jail, though, he brings an intensely personal and angry nationalist ideology with him, sweeping Turgoose up in his National Front-friendly “England for the English” rhetoric. We all know where this is going, but writer/director Meadows doesn’t pile it on too thick (except for maybe the film’s last shot).

It’s a beautifully ugly, grainy and supersaturated portrait of England at its most miserable. Turgoose is amazing; he’s a little firecracker with none of the affected precociousness too common of experienced kid actors. With an excellent soundtrack of ska and Northern soul.

I really like, or at least have really enjoyed, the comedic stylings of Will Arnett (Arrested Development), Will Forte (Superbad) and Bob Odenkirk (Mr. Show, lots of other stuff). But wow, did I not get into The Brothers Solomon. I’ll cop to only making it through about 20 minutes of this bizarrely candy-coloured Odenkirk-directed comedy about a pair of brothers looking to reproduce before their comatose dad (Lee Majors!!!) croaks.

But honestly, I almost bailed three minutes in at the wacky credit sequence, when the titles appeared in the forbidden Comic Sans font (if you don’t know what that is, Google it, though you’re probably better off not knowing). I could see where some of the wacky comedy was supposed to come from, but it was just a little too much for me. -MARK SLUTSKY