Rich Peppiatt’s unconventional music biopic is a riotous middle finger to all your misconceptions about Northern Ireland. Here’s our Kneecap review.
You don’t usually hear the words “Irish” and “rap” in a sentence together, but in Rich Peppiatt’s Kneecap, the two go together like peas and carrots. The film dramatises the rise of the titular rap group’s rise and Kneecap is an unusual, intoxicatingly funny film.
If you haven’t heard of Kneecap, they’re a Belfast-based hip hop trio that released their first single in 2017. They’re unapologetically political in their writing, mixing Irish and English and spitting lyrics about anything and everything. The group’s name comes from a common punishment of shooting someone in the knee.
The trio all play themselves in the film. JJ Ó Dochartaigh is a timid teacher by day who occasionally dares to dream about making music full-time. A fluent Irish speaker, he’s called to translate the sayings of a stubborn teenager in an interrogation room. JJ, passionate about keeping the language alive, is intrigued by the much younger Liam Ó Hannaidh and somehow, ends up making music with Liam and Liam’s pal Naoise Ó Cairealláin.
The trio, going by the stage name Kneecap, start playing half empty pubs but word spreads about their anarchic lyrics and refusal to let their language die and the rest is history.
The film begins with a voice over telling us that “every f***ing story about Belfast starts with this” and is followed by a montage of IRA bombs and violence. It’s true; this is how we’re used to seeing Ireland on film and specifically Belfast. Kneecap doesn’t aim to just prove our view of Belfast wrong, but to completely shatter our idea of the city and its people. It does a very good job of it too.
Kneecap could have easily been a very serious film about culture, language and a more traditional biopic, but Peppiatt’s film is like a firecracker in a bottle. It’s full of energy and chaos, but it all works remarkably well. This is the kind of bold filmmaking that has the potential to keep cinema alive. Peppiatt takes risks and not all of them pay off, but what a way to make your solo feature directorial debut. It’s exactly that fearlessness that cements Kneecap as a must-see film.
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It’s not just Peppiatt whose work here is impressive. The central trio are thoroughly watchable and their performances feel real and genuine. They’re not here to please people, but to tell their story right and to fight for their dying language. It’s undeniably powerful. Michael Fassbender is also captivating in his small role as Naoise’s father Arlo, who has faked his death and is on the run after his activism landed him in hot water with the local authorities.
Peppiatt’s film is undoubtedly political and reveals itself to really be about indigenous language dying, but this isn’t a dry and stuffy socio-political drama. Kneecap is part action, part musical, part comedy. In fact, it’s impossible to put a label on Kneecap; it’s a thoroughly unique and unpredictable film, which makes it all the more exciting.
The chaos that makes Kneecap so endearing can sometimes be a bit much and there are a few tonal misfires here, but with such a manic pace, chances are you’ll forget about them within seconds. Kneecap is a film that will likely give you some sort of whiplash and not everyone will be delighted by a shot from inside the nose as the characters snort cocaine. If Marmite was a film, it’d probably be Kneecap.
There’s no denying that Kneecap is a film to be taken seriously, despite its over-the-top goofy tone. This is wild, entertaining, ballsy filmmaking from Peppiatt and the performances by the central trio are as fearless as the music they make.
Kneecap is in UK cinemas 23rd August
