The Young Offenders
Director: Peter Foott
Talent: Alex Murphy, Chris Walley, Dominic MacHale, PJ Gallagher
Release Date: 16th September
As millions of euros’ worth of smuggled cocaine is shipwrecked off Ireland’s south east coast, two teenage Corkonian ne’erdowells (played by the preternaturally likeable Walley and Murphy) come up with a sure-fire if uninspired get-rich-quick scheme: salvage one of the packages and become millionaires! But a bicycle cop with a tracking device and a score to settle (MacHale), not to mention a psychopathic Dublin drug dealer (Gallagher), might have other ideas.
Peter Foott’s anarchic comedy distinguishes itself in two ways: firstly, it is actually, frequently funny, blending the base and the absurd to great effect, and secondly, it eschews the sadly mainstream, authoritarian Irish tendency to represent the Gardaí as a uniform force for good in society. If there is a major criticism to be made here, it’s that Foott doesn’t love his charming central duo enough, subjecting them to grievous misfortune and visceral injury all too readily, without any reward. The principal failing of so many crime (or, in this case, crime-lite) stories: the makers don’t understand that the audience want to see their perps succeed.
Words: Oisín Murphy-Hall
