Audacious ‘Kneecap’ boldly proves it has legs
If there was ever a movie to get your Irish up, it’s “Kneecap.” With a middle finger raised high, it’s the kind of counterculture statement the Gaelic culture needs if it’s to survive an attempted homogenization by the stuffy British government. It’s also a lot of fun, a sort of “Trainspotting” meets “The Commitments.”
The bloke responsible for this hedonistic rebelliousness is writer-director Rich Peppiatt, who after a 10-year filmmaking stint, finally pulls off the breakout hit destined to make him an overnight sensation. With a little help from his friends, namely the three members of the Irish rap group Kneecap, he wholeheartedly champions the gritty, take-no-shit working class of West Belfast and lays bare all the bollocks life throws at them.
Cheeky doesn’t begin to describe the mountain of attitude Peppiatt injects into the largely fictionalized story of how the collective lawbreaking by Naoise O’Caireallain (aka Móglaí Bap), Liam Og O’Hannaidh (aka Mo Chara) and beatmaster JJ O’Dochartaigh (DJ Próvaí) influenced the creation of Kneecap, a hip-hop outfit whose belligerent lyrics defiantly promote Northern Ireland’s right to communicate in Gaelic, or as they call it, “Irish.”
Up until 2022, speaking it was roundly discouraged and considered an affront to the British government. A key player in its recent acceptance by Parliament was Kneecap, which rapped almost entirely in Irish in support of the right to not speak English. Taking their cues from American rappers, Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap drew inspiration from the brutal reality of growing up poor, disrespected and susceptible to drug addiction and incarceration.
They find an unlikely partner in DJ Próvaí, a high school music teacher by day and Irish language advocate by night. He conceals his true identity behind a balaclava sporting the colors of the Irish flag and enabling him to project a rather menacing image that belies his chronic ordinariness.
As in real life, O’Hannaidh and O’Dochartaigh meet in 2017 when the latter is summoned to the police station to interpret for O’Hannaidh after the perp refuses to speak English to the bobbies. It’s not quite Jagger meeting Richards or Lennon crossing paths with McCartney, but it does prove prolific once O’Dochartaigh gets his hands on O’Hannaidh’s diary of crudely scribbled lyrics.
Inviting O’Hannaidh and O’Caireallain to his makeshift recording studio in a cluttered storage unit, O’Dochartaigh cuts a jam that once properly mixed, instantly energizes the youth of West Belfast. It also catches the attention of Detective Ellis (Josie Walker), a humorless inspector who has long been suspicious of the presumed death of O’Caireallain’s father, Arlo (Michael Fassbender), a high-profile member of the IRA who vanished a decade earlier. But before he left Naoise and his agoraphobic mother (Simone Kirby), he imparted words that are forever etched in his son’s memory. And those would be that “Every word of Irish spoken is a bullet fired for Irish freedom.”
It becomes Kneecap’s motto and motivating force. But this isn’t your father’s warm, fuzzy, highly sanitized biopic. It’s anything but, as Peppiatt pulls no punches in depicting Kneecap as they are, deficiencies and all. They include Naoise and Liam freely using and selling drugs (mostly Molly), cursing, inciting rows and committing petty crimes. We have every reason to be repelled by these juvenile delinquents, but they’re so damn charming it’s impossible. Plus, there’s the notion that their cause is just. Why shouldn’t the folks in Northern Ireland be granted the same privileges as the Scots and Welsh?
Peppiatt empowers the trio to issue their snarly “fuck you” to the House of Lords, while also taking us on a propulsive journey into the lives of three charismatic musicians not merely out to make money and a name for themselves. They’re also scrambling to stay one step ahead of the police, or “peelers,” as they derogatorily refer to them, and the violent vigilantism of the deranged Radical Republicans Against Drugs.
The movie even tosses in a touch of romance, if you want to call it that, when Liam falls for, yikes, a Protestant in Jessica Reynolds’ Georgia, who also just happens to be the niece of Detective Ellis. Then there’s O’Dochartaigh’s live-in girlfriend, Caitlin (Fionnuala Flaherty), a member of the movement to make Irish a recognized language. It’s yet another reason he hides behind the mask, never breathing a word about what he’s up to on those late nights away.
Peppiatt presents it in a loosey-goosey, anything-goes manner that’s almost as engaging as the performances by O’Caireallain, O’Hannaidh and O’Dochartaigh, none of whom have ever acted before. All three are naturals, so much so that they consistently best old pro Fassbender, who seems unaware that this is not yet another sober commentary on the Irish Troubles.
This ain’t Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast.” Thank God! It’s more like Danny Boyle on steroids, as Peppiatt and cinematographer Ryan Kernaghan perfectly capture that certain thrill in sticking it to the man. And living to tell about it – in whatever language you see fit.
Movie review
Kneecap
Rated: Not rated
Cast: Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap, DJ Próvai, Michael Fassbender and Josie Walker.
Director: Rich Peppiatt
Writer: Rich Peppiatt
Runtime: 102 minutes
Where: In theaters Aug. 2
Grade: B+
