Police, paramilitaries, and politicians in Northern Ireland are no match for three young men. With Michael Fassbender as an absent activist father.
Boisterous and bouncing off the walls, Naoise and Liam Og are filled with the joyful energy and boundless rebellion of youth.
Living in Northern Ireland and perpetually incensed with anger, the young men have grown up without the presence of their activist father Arlo (Michael Fassbender), who faked his own death nine years before in order to carry on his protests against the government in secrecy. Their mother, Dolores (Simone Kirby), refuses to speak to him anymore, but the boys keep in grudging touch.
Naoise and Liam Og may have tremendous energy, but they have nowhere to put it except in general rebellious actions, until their paths cross with JJ, a schoolteacher who is bored out of his mind teaching his students music and the Irish language. (He loves both — music and the Irish language — but he hates teaching.) When he is called in by the police one night to serve as translator for one of the boys, who’s been hauled in and claims to only speak Irish, that meeting provides the spark that proceeds to change all their lives.
Directed by Rich Peppiatt as his feature debut, Kneecap is inspired by the true story of how the titular hip-hop group came to be and the opposition they faced. The group and Peppiatt came up with the story, and then Peppiatt wrote the screenplay as well. It may play around with the facts a bit, but it certainly has the ring of truth about it.
Surging with anger, awash in passion, and filled with knockabout comedy, as well as a burning desire to make a lot of noise about meaningful issues, the film fuses together disparate elements into a madly entertaining romp through their own personal histories and recent social history in Northern Ireland. Frankly, even with subtitles, I couldn’t understand much of the dialogue, but the pure energy melted my soul.
Individually, the group give good performances as themselves, buttressed by Michael Fassbender as a passionate father, Simone Kirby as a passionate mother, Jessica Reynolds as a passionate girlfriend, and Josie Walker as a passionate police detective.
The film opens Friday, August 2, at Texas Theatre, Angelika Film Center, and other fine local movie theaters. For more locations and even more information about the film, visit the official site.
Dallas Film Now. 