Kneecap: Bold but Brilliant

I’m not even going to pretend I wasn’t biased going into this film. As a native Irish speaker all my life, and having spoken with the members of Kneecap in an interview back in 2020 and finding them delightful and earnest, finding out they’d made a film (almost) entirely in Irish and that they were in the starring roles? With Fassbender thrown in I’d given it a 10 before I’d even walked in. Light joking aside, Kneecap is almost as much of a statement as it is a film, that doesn’t take away from the message of the film or its quality however as it delivers a strong message about the Irish Language while staying fast-paced, fun, and charming for the full runtime.

The film depicts the story of the rise of Kneecap, a Belfast-based Irish rap group. It follows friends Naoise (Móglaí Bap) and Liam (Mo Chara), two young lads from Belfast who after some coaxing from schoolteacher JJ Ó Dochartaigh (DJ Próvai) decide to start making hip hop/rap music in the Irish language while also getting into a series of antics and finding themselves at odds with the Irish language movement. The film is a very stylized and (mostly) fictional telling of the real group Kneecap and their origins. The story is simple but it works well for what it’s trying to achieve and also maintains reasonable believability so you remember it’s still set in the real world and tackling real issues.

I was surprised to find out this was Rich Peppiatts first feature film as a director, Peppiatt has directed short films in the past and even shot one of Kneecap’s music videos ‘Guilty Conscience’, with seasoned actors Michael Fassbender and Simone Kirby on the cast to support, this film feels anything but amateur. The film’s pacing is almost breakneck at times, never allowing you a moment to relax before thrusting you back into head-thumping music and crazy antics by the band members. This was very effective as I was engaged from the first opening shot until the credits rolled and never found the 105-minute runtime to be too long.

The cinematographer Ryan Kernaghan (Ted Lasso, Belfast) shot the movie well keeping each shot simple but effective. From plenty of aerial shots of Belfast to evocative wide shots of republican street art & murals, Kernaghan keeps us engaged with the setting of the film never letting us forget the history of the city it’s based in. The editing in this film is also very solid, while the film uses subtitles for most of it’s runtime they use them in very inventive ways other than just filling up the bottom of the screen. Having them appear in flashy ways or warped around objects kept my attention well even when I didn’t need to read the subtitles I found myself doing so because of how engagingly they were laid out.

As a comedy-drama, the dramatic aspect of the film and how it highlights the struggle for the Irish Language Act as well as the struggles the Irish language has faced in Belfast in its history are done very well. I personally found the film not to be completely side-splittingly hilarious, but the jokes were very clever and there were also a few referential jokes that would go over the head of the casual viewer. Comedy is subjective and I did find the film to be funny overall, but more in a witty clever way than a 10 jokes per minute kind of way.

Having the band members play themselves in the film given that none of them have any acting experience in any feature films was a risk, but it’s one I’m glad they took. The energy of the trio is electric and they all put in great performances. The highlight, however, is JJ Ó Dochartaigh ( DJ Próvai ) who plays the role of the reluctant teacher thrust into the story of these two wild ‘kids’, he plays the role so well I forgot it was the man himself and not a different actor. Alongside great performances from experienced Irish actors Fassbender, Kirby and Walker the performances in this film end up being a lot better than I expected and well worth watching for, Fassbenders role while small was definitely a highlight.

Overall Kneecap is as much of a thrill ride as it a message about the Irish language. Whether you’re deeply involved with Irish heritage or just looking for a fun comedy with Irish as it’s backdrop, Kneecap is definitely worth seeing and for those who don’t speak the language, please don’t let a few subtitles put you off missing this one.