After the success of witty and wonderful shorts such as "Small Time", Shane Meadows' first full-length foray is an auspicious and confident feature debut which more than lives up to expectations.

Told in flashback, it tells the tale of the good-hearted, compassionate Darcy (Hoskins - seldom better), who decides to try to re-instill a sense of local community and purpose into the run down Nottingham area where he resides by opening a boxing club for the n'er-do-well local youths, among them Meadows' regular Danny Nussbaum. Sceptical at first, then seeing the project as a means to vent their many frustrations, the local lads, many of whom have neither jobs nor prospects, soon flock to Darcy's boxing club - but the threat of violence and cynicism is sadly never too far away.

Shot beautifully in black and white by Ashley Rowe, Meadows' film is a typically witty look at disenchantment, redemption, and regret. Socially aware but also peppered with flashes of brilliant humour and candid, unlikely beauty, it's an engaging and outwardly confident blend of authentic naturalism and low-budget inventiveness that marks Meadows as very much a British director of the future.