Awaydays

Paul Carty (Nicky Bell) is 19, good-looking, funny, clever – and bored out of his mind; he spends all his wages on clubs, records, football and gigs. It’s at a Bunnymen gig that he meets Elvis (Liam Boyle), who belongs to a notorious gang called The Pack, who dress stylishly, have androgynous wedge haircuts worn with designer clothes. Elvis is a council estate romantic, a dreamer with big plans about escaping to Berlin, New York, anywhere… And he wants Paul to come with him.
He’s smitten with his new mate and plans the big journeys they’ll make together. But Paul soon also gets to know the ‘other’ Elvis – moody, fatalistic and possessive. Their individual paths start to diverge and head towards a crisis in their own lives and those of others.
With Thatcher’s early premiership as a backdrop, Awaydays paints a shrill, dark-romantic portrait of a young generation which does what every young generation does, only more desperately, more fiercely so: fight, drink, listen to music, bond, watch the games, use drugs, fashion themselves. Kevin Sampson wrote the script, based on his own cult novel, and the film is a triumphant portrayal of youth culture, with much emphasis on the clothes, the language, the bonding and insecurities, great acting, and a superb post-punk soundtrack, including Echo & The Bunnymen, Magazine, Joy Division and Ultravox. (EH)

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