As a fan of the book and work of the people involved in this film I was excited to watch this for a long time. The acting wasn't bad at all and the film had a lot of good cinematography shots with a creative use of lighting. But due to the writing and lack of character development I finished this film feeling confused and honestly laughed as it felt like an RTE drug awareness video from the 90s that they show you in school.
The plot was all over the place as the film tried to do too many things at once which ultimately took away from important character insight - while watching the film I was constantly waiting to get know the characters. There was absolutely no chemistry which made watching feel awkward at times.
They tried to make Kearney's father come across as abusive when ultimately he seemed flawed which didn't give any explanation as to why Kearney has "psychotic" tendencies.
Most of the dialogue was shallow and made me cringe, as a young Irish person I have not met anyone who spoke the way these characters spoke. It definitely translated as an uncanny valley perception of being young which doesn't make sense considering the director was Irish himself which made me feel he was quite sheltered. Considering this film would definitely be for a young adult audience it was definitely not relatable in the slightest.
From the start of the film to the end, the characters internal conflicts did not change or come to much of a conclusion. While Matthew came to a "conclusion" there was nothing new to learn from the conflict and situation that we learnt before the first half of the film through his perception.
I personally hate the argument of representation - especially in film. But honestly for a film about the Irish youth the representation was terrible due to the bad character writing. I would expect a lot better for a huge production with fantastic well known actors as well as it being a unique film set in Ireland.
A lot of hard work went into making this film and I do look forward to seeing the actors work in the future.
The plot was all over the place as the film tried to do too many things at once which ultimately took away from important character insight - while watching the film I was constantly waiting to get know the characters. There was absolutely no chemistry which made watching feel awkward at times.
They tried to make Kearney's father come across as abusive when ultimately he seemed flawed which didn't give any explanation as to why Kearney has "psychotic" tendencies.
Most of the dialogue was shallow and made me cringe, as a young Irish person I have not met anyone who spoke the way these characters spoke. It definitely translated as an uncanny valley perception of being young which doesn't make sense considering the director was Irish himself which made me feel he was quite sheltered. Considering this film would definitely be for a young adult audience it was definitely not relatable in the slightest.
From the start of the film to the end, the characters internal conflicts did not change or come to much of a conclusion. While Matthew came to a "conclusion" there was nothing new to learn from the conflict and situation that we learnt before the first half of the film through his perception.
I personally hate the argument of representation - especially in film. But honestly for a film about the Irish youth the representation was terrible due to the bad character writing. I would expect a lot better for a huge production with fantastic well known actors as well as it being a unique film set in Ireland.
A lot of hard work went into making this film and I do look forward to seeing the actors work in the future.