Clubbed

"Clubbed" (2008) is a British crime drama directed by Neil Thompson — watch it online on iFILM. Mel Raido plays Danny, a lonely factory worker in early-1980s England who stumbles into a job as a nightclub doorman and finds, for the first time, something that feels like purpose.

Colin Salmon is the ex-boxer who takes Danny under his wing; Maxine Peake plays the woman who gives him a reason to stick it out. The deeper Danny gets into the door scene, the harder it becomes to tell the difference between brotherhood and coercion. The film never lets the violence feel glamorous — each escalation is the logical consequence of the one before it.

Adapted from Derrick Hawe's memoir, "Clubbed" is grounded in the specific texture of working-class Britain under Thatcher — it doesn't need to announce its politics because the setting does it for them. Stream "Clubbed" (2008) online on iFILM.