'Borstal Boy' (2000) – Jim Sheridan

Acclaimed film-maker Jim Sheridan's rightfully celebrated rites-of-passage 'Borstal Boy' is based on beloved Irish Author Brendan Behan's stark, witheringly unsentimental autobiography, an unusually compelling drama of the profound friendships between naïve young men fatefully forged in harsh, adversarial circumstances beyond their control. Impish Cockney sparra' Danny Dyer subtly delivers a surprisingly earnest, career best performance as jocular, roguish tea-leaf Charlie Millwall, and a broodingly handsome Shawn Hatosy is quite remarkable as his companion, the righteously militant young Republican/gifted drunken poet-to-be Brendan Behan. The especially turbulent 40s era is engagingly realised by Sheridan and his equally talented crew, and while the dour Borstal setting is necessarily oppressive, the sublime, multilayered text, splendidly evocative production design, and winningly vivid performances from the film's talented youthful cast excitingly makes for a frequently moving, thematically edifying period feature that successfully navigates each explosively emotional minefield with Moorish dollops of genuine humour, extraordinary warmth and heartfelt sensitivity.