4 stars
Kneecap is the most exciting movie you will see this summer.
No spandex-clad superheroes or twisted supervillains are trying to take over or destroy the world. It’s not filled with tons of eye-popping computer-generated special effects, and it’s doubtful you will see any of the movie’s stars smiling at you from a fast food wrapper or bag of chips.
What Kneecap has, and what most of the action/adventure “blockbusters” released so far can’t even be bothered with, is an infectious sense of fun and a passion for storytelling that pulsates off the screen. Plus, it has a fantastic soundtrack.
Directed by Rich Peppiatt, Kneecap is the story of a rap group unlike anything most people have experienced: a trio of white guys from Belfast who rap in their native tongue, Gaelic. By day, they are high school music teacher JJ and two confessed ‘low life scum,’ Naoise & Liam Og. But once the sun goes down, the drugs take effect, and they hit the stage, they become Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap, and DJ Próvaí – better known as Kneecap – not only the voice of their generation but figureheads of the political movement to save their mother tongue.
You don’t have to be a fan of rap music, knowledgeable about the history of Belfast and the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland, or fluent in Gaelic to enjoy Kneecap. The exuberance of the three leads performing onstage or in their equally outrageous offstage lives is infectious and quickly pulls the audience into their world. The Gaelic, spoken or rapped, is subtitled, and if you want to know how important that is, try listening to Kneecap’s music without them. The rhythm and rhyme are universal, but the things they rap about are very Belfast/Northern Irish specific and deserve to be told in that language.
Along with the band and its fans, Kneecap is filled with characters who support the story and stand out as individuals. Michael Fassbender, who was born in Germany but raised in the town of Killarney, Co. Kerry, in south-west Ireland, is fantastic playing Naoise’s father, Arló Ó Cairealláin, an IRA fighter living on the lamb after faking his death to avoid getting arrested by the British. Simone Kirby is equally good at playing his wife, Dolores, who knows he is still alive but is so devastated by his leaving that she can’t leave the house. Josie Walker is terrifying as the British detective determined to crush the band, their families, and everything they fight for.
While credited as director and co-writer (with Chara and Bap), Peppiatt can easily be considered the fourth band member. His unique style doesn’t just try to support the beats and the lyrics; he riffs off them to create his own visual “music” on the screen. It can be a bit disorienting at times, and the director’s style sometimes threatens to overtake the substance of the story. Still, Kneecap is never boring thanks to the bold and original sights and sounds Peppiatt and his cast splash across the screen, all designed to tell a great story.
