'KNEECAP' REVIEW: A Musical Comedy That Isn't Corny [4/5]

But It's Got A Lot On Its Mind

[Rating 4/5] - dir. Rich Peppiatt - 2024 - Ireland - R - 1h 45m - Comedy / Musical

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I must admit, despite the praise I’ve seen given to this film, I was wary. A musical… comedy… about Irish nationalists… who rap… in their mother tongue. Sure, maybe I would’ve seen its heart was in the right place, but how much can go as right as you need it to when the pillars of the creation are so distinctly different? They need tending to in different ways.

Well, good news. All that wariness was for nothing. I was wrong (not a shock).

Kneecap is everything it promises to be in fulfilling, often thrilling fashion (even in its actual fashion).

Three Irish men — two young bucks with generational trauma from the Troubles, taking out their frustration on garda and anyone leaning towards supporting the English, or anti-unification, meet an over the hill music teacher, who makes beats and likes their words. Together, they form “Kneecap”, which grows from little more than a talented if rough around the edges toolshed project into a full blown musical force, taking their home Belfast by storm. All it takes is spreading a simple video taken of their first gig by an equally disaffected young bartender.

There is a nagging comic book visual aesthetic thing they do throughout Kneecap that I think actually detracts, in an unfortunately juvenile way, from what’s otherwise a funny yet serious and righteous musical sociological film.

The Irish language is gorgeous. I wondered how much would be spoken in that language versus English, and it’s a lot. Rightly so, I believe. Filmmaker Rich Peppiatt picks and chooses with which Irish he wants to translate, and which he’d rather leave to-be-researched (or just for those already fluent).

Fantastic that the film doesn’t feel even remotely like your typical biopic. There’s too much at stake. Too much to reference. Too many beliefs clamoring to come out of just one mouth. It couldn’t possibly be a typical biopic and still do justice to the band and its beliefs.

So we get this.

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‘Kneecap’ is out now on Apple TV+ and Youtube.

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Selected Movie Quote: “A country without a language is only half a nation.”

[Rating 4/5] - dir. Rich Peppiatt - 2024 - Ireland - R - 1h 45m - Comedy / Musical