Why you can trust GamesRadar+
Set in ’70s Liverpool, Pat Holden’s film tells of a bored teenager (Nicky Bell) who, having befriended the charismatic Elvis (Liam Boyle) at an Echo & The Bunnymen gig, falls in with his pack of football ‘casuals’.
Cue much Stanley knife-related mayhem, homoerotic tension and some Trainspotting-style heroin taking to the strains of such post-punk icons as Magazine, The Cure and Joy Division.
Alas, being based on Kevin Sampson’s 10-year-old cult novel doesn’t stop this being a pale facsimile of Shane Meadows’ masterly This Is England, a likeness that’s only heightened by the presence of Stephen Graham as gang leader John.
To its credit, Awaydays does not glamorise its hooligans the way The Football Factory and Green Street did. Even so, given its fascination with their Adidas trainers, green cagoules, drainpipe jeans and wedge haircuts, it does come perilously close to fetishising them.
Neil Smith
The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine.

Black Butler Emerald Witch Arc release schedule – when is episode 1 on Crunchyroll?

Nintendo says Switch 2's Discord-like GameChat is a "defining feature" of the new console that was partially shaped by Zelda: Breath of the Wild and a cult puzzle game

Switch 2's producer made requests "in great detail and great amounts" to make sure the eShop is as good as the Wii Shop Channel