Green Street Hooligans (2005)

Whether you've been maniacally following the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and need to fill the void left after Spain's win in the Final last Sunday, or if you're an average American who just doesn't get what the big deal about football is (and why doesn't anyone else call it soccer?), this film may be what you're looking for.

Two years after Elijah Wood concluded his (nearly) interminable trek to Mordor, he headed out on another little journey, this time to the birthplace of Middle Earth's creator: Merry Old England. In the role of Matt Buckner, our former hobbit plays an American who gets swept up in the rowdy, fanatical, and often violent world of English soccer hooliganism. Matt's new brother-in-law, Pete Dunham, played by Charlie Hunnam (who now stars on FX's outlaw biker show Sons of Anarchy) reluctantly brings him into his football firm, the Green Street Elite. If, like Matt, you're not familiar with football and firms and such, here's a little dialogue from the film to give you the basic idea:

Pete Dunham: All right. Every football team in Europe's got a firm. Some have two.
[Matt gives him a blank look]
Christ, I forgot how clueless you Yanks are. All you've seen of us is the stadium riots on TV, innit? ...
See, West Ham football is mediocre. But our firm is top-notch, and everyone knows it. The GSE: Green Street Elite. Arsenal... great football, shit firm... the Gooners. Tottenham... shit football, and a shit firm... the Yids, they're called. I actually put their main lad through a phone box window the other day.

Matt Buckner: [Matt looks down at the newspaper] What about Millwall?

Pete Dunham: Ah, Millwall. Where to even fucking begin with Millwall. Millwall and West Ham firms hate each other, more than any other firms by far.

Matt Buckner: Sorta like the Yankees and the Red Sox.

Pete Dunham: More like the Israelis and the Palestinians.

The film is not a big budget production, and I personally can't vouch for the authenticity of the subject matter, but it's a well-crafted and interesting story that explores a world few Americans are familiar with, and most probably don't even realize exists. Wood is surprisingly believable for a guy who doesn't look like he could throw a decent punch, let alone take one, and Hunnam shows some of the charisma that later led to his role as badass biker Jax Teller on SoA.

If your looking for a deeper insight into why the rest of the world gets so excited about soccer, or if you just want an entertaining film to occupy a couple hours of your time, Green Street Hooligans is worth watching.

109 minutes
Rated R for violence, pervasive language, and drug use