Rich Peppiatt's Kneecap

For a limited time, our friends at the EarBuds Podcast Collective are pairing a podcast with our headlining film.

This week: The Language Question. A series of conversations about the Irish language and its history. Hosted by Finghin MacCártaigh, it features conversations with linguists and historians contemplating its significance and impact in a linguistically diverse world.

— Arielle at EarBuds Podcast Collective

Each week, Drew creates a watchlist with film recommendations provided by you, the tnmn community.

Last week’s category: slice of life movies. The results are posted to our website and Letterboxd account every week.

This week’s category: sick day movies. That is, your favorite movies to watch when you're sick — not movies that are about being sick. Reply to this email with your submission and why we should watch it. We’ll feature it in next week’s newsletter.

Note: If your submission doesn't comply with the category, I’ll convince your partner that YETI coolers are the only coolers worth buying. All the other coolers are dumb and only keep your drinks cold for like, 8 hours. You deserve to keep drinks cold on the beach for 48 hours or more. Your partner will be immovable on the issue. So, next time you go to the beach, you’ll pay an extra $275 AND you’ll only be able to hold 21 cans of beer in your new cooler. Because all that fancy Rotomolded insulation takes up extra space. Your drinks will be ice cold, as will your financial situation. So, ya know. Follow the category.

A spoiler-free description of the movie.

Belfast teacher JJ meets Naoise and Liam Óg and forms an Irish hip-hop group called Kneecap.

If you like these things, then you’ll like the film.

→ Ketamine. Cocaine. Drugs. This film set the global record for the highest volume-by-weight consumption of recreational drugs per minute of runtime.¹

→ The C word. It’s an Irish film. So, that’s that.

→ Irish culture wars and hip-hop. The fight to preserve native Irish language in the face of suppression serves as a backdrop to Kneecap’s rise to hip-hop fame.

¹ This is untrue. The volume-by-weight of drugs consumed per minute of film runtime is not a world record that is currently being tracked. Be a more critical thinker.

What I liked about it.

I’m sitting on my back porch right now listening to a Irish language hip-hop album featuring a witty reference to the famous nineties cartoon, Pinky and the Brain.

I can only make out English words in the lyrics. And my innocent little ears have heard the word “cunt” more than fifteen times. Occasionally, the Irish lyrics also give way to mentions of MDMA, cocaine, and other drugs.

It’s hard to predict how your life will unfold. But I feel satisfied with where I’ve landed.

The last time I thought about Pinky and the Brain, I was five or six years old. I hadn’t heard much in the way of filthy language, and I certainly had no understanding of mind-altering substances.

For my middle-aged, cosmic collision of cartoons, hip-hop, vulgar language, and drugs — I have Rich Peppiatt’s Kneecap to thank.

The film is a propulsive, partially-fictional biopic about Kneecap, the controversial Irish-language hip-hop group often found at the center of debates about free speech and political expression.

The film punches hard and fast aesthetically. During its musical moments, viewers are treated to bouncy hand-written English captions for Irish lyrics. These stylized captions are often paired with hand-drawn pictures most suited to appear in a dive bar bathroom.

Cinematographer Ryan Kernaghan’s fitting punk-rock, high-octane camera work is a perfect match for Kneecap’s soundtrack.

When he does take a moment to slow down, Kernaghan showcases the most stunning graffiti art to illustrate the cultural temperature surrounding the indigenous language and free speech in Ireland.

Writer-director Peppiatt penned the story in heavy collaboration with each member of the hip-hop group, who starred as themselves in the film.

It all centers around the “ceasefire generation” — the younger generation born after the Troubles period in northern Ireland.

And, while the conservation of indigenous language is no joking matter, the writing in Kneecap is quite funny. The film features some of the silliest sex and drug scenes I’ve seen in some time without downplaying the politics of the issue at hand.

The film admirably showcases the cultural importance of Kneecap’s music, despite its profanity — or perhaps partially because of it. The way works like this can inspire younger generations to embrace their cultural roots and, in this case, keep native Irish language alive.

As for the members of Kneecap — their performances were convincing and genuinely endearing. It’s evident they took this work seriously, but also had quite a bit of fun filming it.

Above all else, this film is an energetic, entertaining dive into the politics of prudery, censorship, and language.

Now, I’ve got a few options for how to spend the rest of my day. I’ll leave it to a vote: a) learn Irish language, b) do MDMA, c) binge watch Pinky and the Brain, or d) all of the above.

Enjoy the film.

A fact or two about the production that makes you say “oh, neat.”

→ The real-life hip-hop group had no acting experience prior to the film. Apparently, the acting lessons taken by Kneecap members Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap, and DJ Próvaí prior to the shoot showed some room for improvement.

→ The filmmaker used a Henry Hoover for a POV cocaine snorting scene. The director outlines his approach: “So, we got a Henry Hoover, and glued some hairs in there, and then basically put the lens down the Henry Hoover, and I had to shine a light down there as well. Then we just got some fucking white powder and just hoovered it!”

One great line of dialogue from the film.

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