The Belfast depicted in this movie is so scrubbed clean it might as well be a theme ride at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, not a city full of working-class slums in Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland.
The opening shots remind us they built the Titanic in the Belfast shipyards. Cut to the neighbourhood of, presumably, coal miners and dock workers. What are they doing? Drinking excessively at the local pub, spouting bad poetry and fist-fighting in their work clothes? Nope. They are all dancing, skipping and kicking around a homemade ''football" (aka soccer ball) in Tide-clean designer casuals. They are also all remarkably good looking and - biggest stretch of all - have perfect teeth.
Into this utopia of Protestant/Catholic integration comes an angry mob from around the corner (or out of the pub or the sewer, it's not clear). Lest the producers offend one side of the other, it's not immediately clear which side the mob represents. If they were carrying any flags I missed them. I have Red Hand of Ulster memorabilia and believe me, it's branding you can't miss.
Angry mob burns and loots. Neighbours pick up the pieces and promise not to hate each other. Erect barricades. And mostly go back to worrying about household debt and the little girl next door. The barbed wire and suspended civil liberties? Minor inconvenience.
Of course, it wouldn't be the 2020s without a bl3ck policeman, the brown grade-school teacher, or the Sikh shopkeeper. I joked to my wife: "I bet that's more melanin than existed in all of Ireland in 1969."
The story never gets much beyond, "Honey, we gotta get out of this shythole." The reality is there are WAY more Irish around the world than there are in Ireland. Precisdely because it IS a shythole full of bitter, angry, resentful, grudge-carrying, poetry-spouting, alcoholics.
On the other hand there are a lot of sweet performances, esp by the kid. I could see why this got a lot of awards hype. It might even fool enough movie-goers before the Irish get back to what they've done best for the past 400 years - devote their lives to killing each other.
The opening shots remind us they built the Titanic in the Belfast shipyards. Cut to the neighbourhood of, presumably, coal miners and dock workers. What are they doing? Drinking excessively at the local pub, spouting bad poetry and fist-fighting in their work clothes? Nope. They are all dancing, skipping and kicking around a homemade ''football" (aka soccer ball) in Tide-clean designer casuals. They are also all remarkably good looking and - biggest stretch of all - have perfect teeth.
Into this utopia of Protestant/Catholic integration comes an angry mob from around the corner (or out of the pub or the sewer, it's not clear). Lest the producers offend one side of the other, it's not immediately clear which side the mob represents. If they were carrying any flags I missed them. I have Red Hand of Ulster memorabilia and believe me, it's branding you can't miss.
Angry mob burns and loots. Neighbours pick up the pieces and promise not to hate each other. Erect barricades. And mostly go back to worrying about household debt and the little girl next door. The barbed wire and suspended civil liberties? Minor inconvenience.
Of course, it wouldn't be the 2020s without a bl3ck policeman, the brown grade-school teacher, or the Sikh shopkeeper. I joked to my wife: "I bet that's more melanin than existed in all of Ireland in 1969."
The story never gets much beyond, "Honey, we gotta get out of this shythole." The reality is there are WAY more Irish around the world than there are in Ireland. Precisdely because it IS a shythole full of bitter, angry, resentful, grudge-carrying, poetry-spouting, alcoholics.
On the other hand there are a lot of sweet performances, esp by the kid. I could see why this got a lot of awards hype. It might even fool enough movie-goers before the Irish get back to what they've done best for the past 400 years - devote their lives to killing each other.