"Football hooligans" are working-class British blokes who cause mayhem at football matches (soccer, to Americans). God help the town if their team wins: they will rush out into the street, breaking windows, pushing over cars, basically destroying Madrid or Milan. They are criminals. So who knew that there was a whole genre of hooligan films glorifying their antics?
Scene 1: Essex, 1995. Three scruffy guys driving down a dark country road. They park. Guys in ski masks approach and shoot them all, except for Danny (Jason Maza), because his old mate, Mickey, recognizes him. Turns out they shot the wrong guys. They apologize, embarrassed.
Jason Maza is in the front left of this shot, which does not appear in the movie.
Scene 2: Danny narrates. Childhood in a shithole school with his best mate Fanta. He accuses the teacher of sex with one of the boys, calls the headmaster a "two bob slag," and gets expelled. Meanwhile, his dad, Danny Sr., a "fucking legend," assaults the teacher, assaults the judge at his trial (and makes him eat his own wig), and gets 30 years in prison. Danny is sent to live with his grandpa.
Meanwhile, in prison, guards in riot gear bring a party hat and piece of cake to prisoner Dex on his birthday.
Scene 3: Some years later. The adult Danny comes home to find Grandpa packing: "I'm moving to Australia with Cyrill." A boyfriend?
Then "I told you to get your own place, instead of smoking weed with that ginger faggot."
Ok, fag in Britain means cigarette, but I'm pretty sure that's a homophobic slur. 12 minutes for the homophobia to start.
But I'll keep going a bit longer, in case Fanta really is gay, or if Danny and Dex fall in love.
Scene 4: Childhood chum Fanta, "that ginger faggot," invites Danny to stay with him, but Danny says he'll be fine. As soon as he gets his own place, he'll have a party with "birds, the whole bit." Birds means "girls," so they're obviously both heterosexual.
Maybe Grandpa is the only homophobe.
Meanwhile, Dex is released from prison. He calls the Baron, who is sitting in his office in a kimono, with a statue of Michelangelo's David in the background. Obvious gay coding.
Wait -- the Baron tells Karen to get the kids and go stay with Gran. Obvious straight coding.
He thinks "Pablo" is calling for phone sex, but it's Dex, threatening him, and calling him a faggot.
Ok, I'm out. It took 18 minutes for the homophobia to become overwhelming.
Just for fun, I fast-forward to see if Danny and Dex fall in love.
No.
Heterosexual Male Gaze Stuff: A sex-with-a-girl scene and a scene in a topless bar.
Gay Subtexts/Jokes: A same-sex hug, some same-sex shirtless dancing, and a same-sex kiss that shocks all of the other hooligans. In the closing "what happened to them" scenes, we learn that two guys in the gang "became successful florists" (not the two who were kissing).
By the way, the top photo is from Kickoff (2011), about a gay soccer team competing with heterosexuals. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a score of 21%, which may be the lowest in history. An Amazon review complained that the gay team displays "every gay stereotype," so they must do a lot of swishing. The trailer shows them checking their makeup, blowing kisses, and performing "Y.M.C.A."
Hell, I know a straight couple with a David, though David (or St Sebastian if they want to show off) is indeed obvious gay coding.
ReplyDeleteOther things can fool you by time period. 70s or 80s, that bodybuilder photo or Frazetta painting of a dude in a fur Speedo doesn't mean anything, but as you go earlier, bodybuilders and peplums are clearly gay coding; as you go later, muscly fantasy art is clearly gay coding. But at this point, they're straight coding.
This type of blue collar drama usually has some gay subtext these guy are either bonding over sports or drinking which might lead to one of those oh I was so drunk I forgot I had sex with my bro scene
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