Movie Review : England is Mine

I know, I've kinda let this blog collect the dust, but to be fair my YouTube channel as well, it's been a couple of complicated months I wish I could erase and yet here we are. Now here comes a review of a movie I've had the chance to see recently : England is Mine by Mark Gill.

England is Mine is according to its iMDB summary "A portrait of Morrissey and his early life in 1970s Manchester before he went on to become the lead singer of seminal alternative rock band The Smiths."

Now I have to confess something, I never listened to The Smiths, ever. Actually I didn't even know who Steven Morrissey was and yet I felt drawn to this unofficial biopic because I could relate to its main character a lot more than I ever expected.

Now I think if you're a Smith fan, this movie could work or absolutely not work for you. I genuinely have no idea about Morrissey's life and if I have to be fully honest this movie did not really make me want to dig deep into The Smith's music or Morrissey's solo endeavors. 

What really made me love this movie is more about the psyche of the main character. (played beautifully by Jack Lowden) As someone who has been dealing with social anxiety ever since I was a kid, this movie ,I believe, represents what it's like to simply be artistically impeached by it. Sometimes anxiety takes so much out of me physically and mentally that I feel like I'm slowly drowning in a lake, unable to breathe or to escape my invisible enemy dragging me down into an endless pit.

The moment when Steven is in front of his typewriter, unable to write, feeling like creativity has flown away because of his mental health issues reminded me of myself and how sometimes I am unable to make reviews, to focus on new released music, and simply unable to write anything, as if my mind goes blank, and the need and desire for all that is simply gone.

But among all of the chaos, there's hope. Just like the final part of the movie shows, there's is a way to swim back to the surface and breathe again, in this case music and his writing remain the salvation for Steven's mental health and you see the subtle changes appear in such a natural way that it makes the movie stand on its own feet just fine.

Let's imagine for a second that England is Mine exists in a parallel universe where the main character shares the same name as a famous singer like a coincidence , so we can then focus beyond the shadow of it and see the real treasure it gives us : a honest portrait about someone dealing with crippling anxiety and depression. I found a lot of myself in this movie and I believe anyone dealing with the same mental issues will as well, and it is depicted in a way that is genuine and caring without ever sugar coating what it is like and that is why I give the movie :

Thanks for reading my first ever movie review here ! After seeing this movie I really needed to write down my impressions on it as it had an impact on me I never expected. I'd be happy to know what you think of it and feel free to share other movies that share a similar approach to mental health issues. I might do more movie reviews (as it's something I quite enjoy even if it's not as much as music, it's still a big part of my life ) if you'd like more. We'll see how things will go~