Kneecap

Another unusual and effective 2024 spin on the dreaded musical biopic genre, Kneecap chronicles the rise of a Belfast hip-hop trio who rap in their native Irish. While hardly as fresh and original as it wants to be—this feels like a hybrid of The Commitments, Danny Boy, Trainspotting, and 8-Mile (not that that's a bad thing)—this is a lively and entertaining film. Part of what makes Kneecap unique is that it stars the actual band members as themselves, which I didn't realize while watching the movie. My assumption that this was an entirely fictional film was in part because so much of the story follows the standard lets-start-a-band musical and musical biopic formulas, with a number of shortcuts, and partly because of the presence of some stars of the Irish screen like Josie Walker (Belfast, The Wonder) and Michael Fassbender (well used playing the martyred father of one of the lads).

The film gleefully extols the virtues of hard drugs, rough sex, and the dark web, delights in fuck-the-pigs style antiauthoritarianism, and effectively draws a connection between how the creation of hip-hop empowered African-Americans and what rapping in the native tongue banned by colonizers can do for the minority of Irish speakers in Northern Ireland. The screenplay by first-time director Rich Peppiatt, who directed the music video for the band, starts out strong but waffles a bit in the middle. Still, the ending has a lot of energy, and it's not hard to get behind the message (and the messengers). Once the credits rolled and I realized this was a true story starring the actual folks, I suddenly liked it a whole lot more. Good pals and self-confessed "low life scum" Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh (aka Mo Chara) and Naoise Ó Cairealláin (aka Móglaí Bap) and their masked DJ, JJ Ó Dochartaigh (aka DJ Próvaí), a former music teacher at an Irish-language elementary school who started wearing a balaclava at early gigs in case any of his students recognized him, all convinced me they were actors. I also dug their music, which is not inconsequential.