Kneecap Packs a Kick
EBM HUMPHREYS
Rave reviews led me to expect polished and perfect mayhem from Kneecap. Actually it’s imperfect, but full-blooded, solid entertainment, made brilliant by its context, message and moment. It packs into its 105 minutes a dizzying range of genres: it’s mostly comedy, it’s a bit coming-of-age and a tiny bit rom-com; and then it offers gangsters (crime thriller), campaign story (docudrama), music biopic and family drama. Real life.
The story is largely true, fictionalised mainly for laughs and thrills. A young Irish-language hip hop band struggles against all the usual obstacles – resources, airtime, their own drug use… plus a few extra Northern Irish ones: a terrorist father on the run and a gang of throwback wannabe-paramilitaries on their case. The power comes from the mission to legitimise the Irish language against discrimination and neglect. The music is great too, but the movie is far more about what music can do – which is to change lives.
There are cartoon exclamations, lyrics scrawled onscreen and even a stop-motion claymation sequence, and the first act wove between Irish and English, too fast for me. I’m tempted to say ‘too interesting’. I would happily watch this again – with full subtitles.
I did enjoy this fictional version of the band’s origin story: star Fassbender’s character is an almost tongue-in-cheek difficult dad, and all the elements gelled. From the politically acrimonious lovers to the depressed mum being shaken up only by the band’s misfortunes, to the vicious police brutality and insipid morality of the local thugs – everything is larger than life, preferably psychedelic. As for the violence: I cannot understand why only sex and bad language were considered to be worthy of warnings … The last time I checked, neither of these bothers me as much as someone being beaten with a cosh while in police custody.
Not having paid attention, I almost missed Kneecap at Kino-Teatr … but in fact, they not only screened it, they clocked up the 8th highest attendance out of 50 theatres nationwide – and held a Q&A with Josie Walker, who plays Detective Ellis, and director David Caffrey. Organising Irish Film Weeks in St Leonards since 2015, owner Olga Mamonova’s love of Irish culture (she greeted the first audience in Irish) means we can expect to see more Irish stories on our local screen. Pay attention!
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