The Football Factory (2004)

Tommy Johnson (Danny Dyer) uses his support for Chelsea as a front for the real Saturday-afternoon agenda: violence. Booze and skirt dominate his nights, and he ends up too drunk to perform with a local girl he clumsily seduces. He wakes up at knifepoint, with the girl's brother claiming Tommy raped her. Rod (Neil Maskell) knocks the knifeman out, and the lads flee.

But the girl is connected to a Millwall firm, and a blood feud follows. Tommy's grandad Bill (Frank Harper) wants no part of it, and plans to emigrate to Australia. But for a boy who plans no further than the next punch-up, Tommy decides to stay put, and stay angry...

After heroin addiction, street crime, time in a secure hospital, rehab and a stint as a Calvin Klein model, Nick Love turned to making movies. Football hooliganism was a theme he knew well (he has two Millwall tattoos, one of them on his inner lip), so his third feature - released in 2004 - was guaranteed authenticity. Sympathy is more difficult. It's hard to like Tommy, but Love's approach doesn't seek indulgence. Rather, he tries to show the reality of life in a world typified by despair.