TwentyFourSeven

(Universal)

Shane Meadows targets Margaret Thatcher's socio-economic legacy by illuminating its repercussions in England's urban housing projects. Alan Darcy (Bob Hoskins) opens a boxing club for his neighborhood's dissolute youth, employing tough love and preaching the discipline of self-control. Shot in gritty black and white, TwentyFourSeven is a fantastic-looking picture; what undoes the film is its languorous tempo, absence of character development, and dyslexic narrative.