The Young Offenders

Dir: Peter Foott

2016

****

The Young Offenders is a great little comedy film, somewhere between the mayhem of the Rubberbandits and Lenny Abrahamson’s 2004 brilliant Adam & Paul. The script is fun and somewhat realistic, as the story is over the top but at the same time you could believe it might happen. The story is about two fifteen year old boys, Conor and Jock. Conor lives with his mother – his father died in an accident some years ago – and Jock lives with his volatile father who became an alcoholic soon after Jock’s mother died not that long ago. Jock is confident, cocky, sleeps around and steals bikes, while Conor is shy, quite and idolizes Jock, much to his mother’s annoyance. The two boys dress the same, have the same terrible hair cuts and bum-fluff mustaches and both are as thick as two short planks. It’s wonderfully observational and the humour is subtle and never forced. It is the right kind of silly. The two boys hear of drug trafficking boat that had capsized off the southwest coast of Cork, spilling seven million Euro bags of Cocaine across the beach and seize the opportunity for a more comfortable life. Without any idea who they might sell it too once they get it, the boys head to the coast on a couple of stolen bikes. It is totally believable, indeed, the story is based on actual events when in 2007, a drug trafficking boat did capsize, spilling 1.5 tonnes of cocaine off the Irish coast near Mizen Head. Conor and Jock are played by Alex Murphy and Chris Walley, in their debut performances. I have no idea whether either actor is trained or to what level but both are perfect as their characters. While both boys are rude, ignorant and annoying, their naivety and positive thinking make them somewhat charming and lovable, making them a couple of very contemporary anti-heroes. What I liked most about the film, apart from the script and the great chemistry between the main characters, was the inventiveness of the story. I’m not sure a lot of it would look good on paper but somehow it works. For instance, Jock wears the mask of one of his enemies when stealing bikes – which leads to the arrest of said enemy. I have no idea if you can get masks made of other people on the internet but I believed it and it didn’t seem ridiculous – far from it. Pretty much everything in the story, no mater how small or insignificant-looking – has a place and a purpose later on in the film. The structure of the film feels quite simple but its actually quite complex and very clever. Any film that ends with everyone being shot in the knee with a nail gun and still be funny is okay with me. It’s also full of brilliant one-liners that have helped the film achieve something of a cult following, although this is comfortably mainstream in the fact that it will appeal to all. So much so that it has since been turned into a popular television series. Writer/director Peter Foott is a film maker to watch out for, as are the two lead actors.

“There are two things need for an adventure, a treasure map and someone dumb enough to go with you”