Christy
Brendan Canty’s committed if undeveloped first feature sees two alienated brothers ending up in the same house in Cork.
Image courtesy of Altitude Film Entertainment.
Ireland has built up a good reputation as a filmmaking country but for all the movies made there Cork is rarely the location chosen. However, it is the setting favoured by the director Brendan Canty and the writer Alan O'Gorman: it featured in their 2019 short film Christy and they have now used the same title for this first feature which develops the characters first seen in that earlier piece and uses many of the actors and crew who were involved then. But, if the north side of the city provides a setting unfamiliar to most of us, the film’s portrayal of youngsters with limited prospects whose lives are shown with gritty realism has become almost a genre of its own. The spirited Rocks (2019) was a prime example, but that mode is not a recent development. If one takes the year 2009 as an example the releases then included Andrea Arnold’s well- remembered Fish Tank and the now somewhat forgotten Dublin-set work by Lane Daly entitled Kisses which also managed to incorporate a poetic feel but which nevertheless handled comparable material.
As the title of Canty’s feature film indicates, the central figure here is 17-year-old Christy played by Danny Power. He has been living in a foster home in Ballincollig but is turned out after a violent incident involving another boy. He is collected by his older half-brother Shane (Diarmuid Noyes) who in the circumstances offers to house him for a few weeks in the Knocknaheeny neighbourhood of Cork where he lives with Stacey (Emma Willis), and their baby. Although Shane has himself had a period in residential care, he now has a settled home life and is keen to put his troubled past behind him. Given Christy’s age he might well be too old to be taken in by another foster family but Shane, who has not seen Christy for some time, feels that his outlook and Christy’s are very different and he wants to limit the time that his half-brother spends under his roof. Christy does join in painting work with Shane and his friend Trevor (Chris Walley) but his cousin, Troy (Lewis Brophy), gets into a fight with Christy and other family members headed by Jammy McCarthy (Ian Tabone) are distinctly criminal types. Christy, who has a gift for hairdressing, blossoms when he is given a job in the hair saloon run by Pauline (Helen Behan) an old friend of his late mother, but even so there is a distinct sense that the immature Christy could all too easily be lured into Jammy’s world.
Canty’s film takes place over the weeks just ahead of Christy’s eighteenth birthday and despite the friendly rapport he has with other youngsters who congregate on the streets - among them Leona (Cara Cullen) and the chirpy but forthright Robot (Jamie Forde) who is confined to a wheelchair – we observe tensions which make it uncertain how Christy’s future will shape up. If that is familiar territory in this kind of film the emphasis it puts on the sibling relationship of Christy and Shane is a relatively novel element in such a context. The screenplay subtly balances both the unease and the bond that co-exist between them. It helps too that the film is very well acted with Power and Noyes both well into their parts and the performance by Emma Willis as Stacey, who is more welcoming than Shane when Christy arrives in their house, is also a real asset. The role of Stacey is a somewhat subsidiary one but Willis brings a welcome warmth to it. It is also the case that the film feels very authentic right down to the strong language that flows through it, while at times its character brings to mind the early work of Shane Meadows.
Given the qualities apparent here I am not altogether surprised that early reviews of Christy have been very positive, but I don't fully share their enthusiasm. The screenplay avoids any sense of melodrama which is all to the good yet it has led to the tensions within the story not being as strongly felt as they ought to be. There is also a sense of elements present being left undeveloped but which might usefully have been worked through more fully had the film’s characters been figures in a television series. That applies, for example, to Leona whose romantic interest in Christy is never built up and to the figure of the homeless addict Chloe (Alison Oliver) who features in only two scenes, the second of which is very brief indeed. Certainly, O’Gorman and Canty show genuine concern for their characters and find some humour amongst these depressing surroundings, not least in the observations made by Robot. However, I never felt, as some people have, that the film for all its gritty material offers an affecting optimism. It does include the occasional song and unusually incorporates some lively hip-hop while the final credits run, but that seemed to be no more than a gesture. I mentioned Rocks as a film belonging to the same genre as Christy and there I found myself far more deeply engaged with the characters and more ready to find something positive in their resilience. Similarly, I cared more about the ill-fated heroine of 2024’s Last Swim. But others may feel more directly attuned to the world of Christy and, if so, that will please me because there is much commitment in this endeavour and much skilled work as well.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Danny Power, Diarmuid Noyes, Emma Willis, Chris Walley, Lewis Brophy, Ian Tabone, Cara Cullen, Helen Behan, Jamie Forde, Ciaran McCarthy, Kane O’Connell O’Flynn, Alison Oliver, Charleigh Bailey.
Dir Brendan Canty, Pro Marina Brackenbury, Meredith Duff and Rory Gilmartin, Screenplay Alan O’Gorman, Ph Colm Hogan, Pro Des Martin Goulding, Ed Allyn Quigley Music Daithi O’Dronai, Costumes Hannah Bury.
Sleeper Films/BBC Film/Screen Ireland/Wayward Films/Nite Owl Film & TV-Altitude Film Entertainment.
94 mins. Ireland/UK. 2025. UK Rel: 5 September 2025. Cert. 15.
