The railway children ... Thomas Turgoose and Piotr Jagiello in Somers Town
One suspects that any other film-maker than Shane Meadows might have been hung, drawn and quartered by the critics if they had cheerfully admitted funding their new film entirely through corporate cash.
But the This is England director has built up such a store of goodwill with his energetic, heartfelt yet entertaining back catalogue that most reviewers seem happy to accept that Somers Town, which was paid for by Eurostar, is just an extension of his usual guerrilla approach to film-making: well done him for transforming big business wonga into indie gold in the shape of this gentle tale of the friendship between two very different teenage boys living in the shadow of the Kings Cross high speed rail link.
"The film began in a boardroom," writes Time Out's Dave Calhoun. "Eurostar initiated the film as a novel approach to marketing. It sometimes shows. But one shouldn't get too hung up on the finances. Since when were most films not tied up in a complex network of capital?"
"Don't worry. The film isn't tattooed with logos," writes The Telegraph's Sukhdev Sandhu. "Its dialogue is plug-free. It's a far cry from Hollywood product placement. Still, it does make you wonder about the wisdom of going to see a posh branding exercise. Any reservations will surely disappear within minutes. Somers Town, written by Paul Fraser, is a work of integrity, a touching piece of dream-cinema, an almost unquantifiably delightful film."
Meanwhile, our own Peter Bradshaw says the film is "a slight, gentle, sweet-natured comedy shot in black and white, and blessed with a lovely performance from Meadows' great find, Thomas Turgoose".
What did you think of this 71-minute piece from Meadows? Is he right to have taken Eurostar's money to fund it? And was the whole thing short and sweet, or a bit of a trainwreck?
