KNEECAP
(director: Rich Peppiatt; screenwriters: story by Rich Peppiatt, DJ Provai, Mo Chara, Moglai Bap; cinematographer: Ryan Kernaghan; editors: Chris Gill, Julian Ulrich; music: Michael ‘Mikey’ J Asante, Gemma Doherty; cast: Michael Fassbender (Arlo O Cairreallain), Mo Chara (Mo Chara/Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh), Moglai Bap (Moglai Bap/Naoise Ó Cairealláin), DJ Provai (JJ/JJ Ó Dochartaigh), Cathal Mercer (Fra), Josie Walker (Detective Ellis), Jessica Reynolds (Georgia), Simone Kirby (Dolores), Adam Best (Doyle), Matthew Sharpe (Sean), Fionnuala Flaherty (Caitlin), Donagh Deeney (Uncle Pedar); Runtime: 105; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Trevor Birney, Jack Tarling; Sony Pictures Classic; 2024-Ireland-in English, Irish Gaelic)
“The rap music is not my cup of tea. But the lads are likable and truthful, and their edgy story is engaging.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
An energy-driven fictionalized musical biopic with a biting humor. The docudrama from Ireland is on the real hip-hop trio called Kneecap. It’s saliently directed by Rich Peppiatt (“One Rogue Reporter”) and based on the story by Peppiatt and the band members using their stage names–DJ Provai, Mo Chara, and Moglai Bap. The Kneecap trio, amateur actors, play themselves, while the ensemble cast is filled with professional actors The hilarious underdog story is about misfits who become successful rappers despite the odds being against them, who try to come to terms with their own cultural identity and to overcome the British rule in a still divided Belfast.
Naoise (Moglai Bap) and Liam Og (Mo Chara) are drug dealers who were always in trouble growing up in West Belfast. While the kids were growing up, Arlo (Michael Fassbender), Naoise’s terrorist IRA father, faked his death and vanished after a stint in prison. The absentee father left behind his traumatized wife (Simone Kirby), who thereafter mostly avoided leaving her house, and a son looking to carry on the Irish revolt against British rule through music, sex and drugs.
Together with their older music teacher JJ (DJ Provai), the schoolboys become the Irish-language group Kneecap. Whereby JJ disguises himself to keep his day job.
We hear their rousing Irish music, follow their run-ins with the peelers (police), take in the Catholic Liam’s kinky romance with the upper-class Protestant Georgia (Jessica Reynolds), and see how Naoise’s activist girlfriend Caitlin (Fionnuala Flaherty) campaigns to make Irish Gaelic the official language in Northern Ireland. There’s also the paramilitary Radical Republicans Against Drugs flexing their muscle to end the hedonist group’s career by any means possible, and Josie Walker playing the main antagonist Detective Ellis.
The group’s message is that music instead of bloodshed can satisfactorily deliver a non-violent message because “Every word you say in Irish is a bullet.”
The rap music is not my cup of tea. But the lads are likable and truthful, and their edgy story is engaging.
It played at the Sundance Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 8/3/2024 GRADE: B
dennisschwartzreviews.com