Awaydays

When Paul Carty (Nicky Bell) meets Elvis (Liam Boyle) each sees in the other the chance for escape. For Carty, Elvis is his passport into the violent camaraderie of “The Pack”, an infamous gang of football casuals; for Elvis, Carty’s middle-class ways and art school friends are a glimpse of a life beyond the one he has always known. Awaydays at times dwells too indulgently on the wild, often infuriating, vicissitudes of their relationship. But this is more than compensated for by the sympathetic performances of the two leads; by the sparse and evocative recreation of the North West in the late seventies; and by the film’s clear-sighted portrayal of the lure and the ugliness of casual violence. Awaydays is an impressive portrait of the thousand agonies of the late teenage years, when every decision seems forever, and where a new pair of trainers is the key to a new identity.