Movie Review: Kneecap

As far as the genre of musical biopics is concerned, the newest addition to the cannon – Kneecap – is a welcome and entertaining look at an unlikely trio of men who form an Irish hip hop act.

After Belfast schoolteacher JJ (DJ Próvai) gets it into his head that two boys from the neighborhood – Naoise (Móglaí Bap) and Liam Óg (Mo Chara) – might have the chops to make it as a hip hop act, he offers to produce a few tracks for them. Along the way, he become as integral to the group – newly christened Kneecap – as are Naoise and Liam Óg. The act quickly becomes the unlikely mouthpiece of the Civil Rights movement currently engaged in preserving the Irish language from absorption into English. Like any other original defiant voice, the group is looked upon as a menace to law and order, but the band remains steadfast in their message of the importance of cultural heritage and defiance of censorship.

Director Rich Peppiatt, makes his feature debut working from a script penned by himself and the three members of the band – Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap, and DJ Próvai. What is refreshing though is how likable the bandmates are portrayed as they develop their professional presence and style. When DJ Próvai dons a ski mask adorned with the colors of the Irish flag, it plays like a pivotal moment in the evolution of the group, rather than a simple “hide your identity” moment. Credit for this goes to Peppiatt who treats these instances like seminal events in the group’s history (as they are) and manages to convey as much to the audience through the editing of Chris Fill and Julian Ulrichs as well as the music provided by Michael “Mikey J” Assante.

Portraying themselves, the members of Kneecap (again – Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap, and DJ Próvai), all deliver solid performances and they too succeed in winning the audience over to their side of the story. Supporting performances from Michael Fassbender as one of the boy’s estranged father, Simone Kirby as his wife, and Josie Walker as a detective trying to apprehend the father – who is also an enemy of the government – are all delivered with equal bravado and nuance that makes for a well-realized cast of characters instead of a hodge-podge of half-interesting ones alongside others that are better drawn.

Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap, and DJ Próvai in “Kneecap.” © Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Although the oeuvre of successful biopics centered on musical acts – especially those in the hip hop genre – is a relatively small one, Kneecap somehow manages to pull out all the stops and deliver on multiple narrative (and musical) levels to deliver a wonderfully entertaining story of how three friends overcame the odds to create something important and perhaps everlasting.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com

An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

@miketyrkus

Mike Tyrkus

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