In South Boston, where Irish roots run deep and Catholic tradition reigns, two brothers face similar hardships but lead far different lives. While older brother Terry descends into drugs and crime, 16-year-old Cole vies to make the state baseball championships - but must struggle to withstand his brother's destructive influence.
Similar titles
Reviews
Touches You
Simply Perfect
If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
This is not an original story, it seems that in recent years we have been flooded with stories that are very similar to this. It was very well done though, with an all-star cast, and a few twists in the story. Black Irish is another story about an Irish family living in Boston. Dad's an alcoholic, Mom is as strict as they come, the older brother is into crime, the older sister is facing a life changing decision, and Cole McKay (Michael Angarano) is stuck in the middle. The story chronicles a year in the life of the McKay family and features many changes that oddly happen all at once. The story wasn't anything special, but it was done in a way that wasn't as predictable as some of the other Boston family films, none of the characters are cops, and there is even some humor thrown in here and there. Being a lifelong baseball fan, that angle of Cole's life was the one I really related to and it helped the film to stand out even a little more. Oscar winner, Melissa Leo, does an amazing job and really puts the emotions into context. Everyone in the McKay family is a tough guy, they don't feel anything, and while she appears to be the strictest one of all, she's the one who really expresses the emotions that everyone must have felt. Angarano wasn't bad either, but I've seen him in things before and as usual, he lacks any kind of expression, he just always seems to go with the flow and do an adequate job, but nothing else. The big surprise of this film was seeing Tom Guiry, A.K.A. Smalls from the Sandlot as a tough, Boston-area, criminal. Seeing the sweet, innocent, kid I grew up know as Scotty Smalls, turn into a fowl mouthed, tough ass, drug dealer was pretty funny. Overall, Black Irish isn't a bad film, it's entertaining and it's unpredictable. There are a lot of different angles and the film moves quickly through the story, but the performances were a mixed bag, and a lot of aspects seemed to mirror similar films. If you don't watch a lot of movies, you'll love this film, but if you're a fanatic and you watch this, you'll probably be able to easily list a dozen films that are very similar.
I'd heard about this movie in an interview Emily Van Camp did at the time she joined the show Sons And Daughters,so when I saw it at my local Hollywood Video store on sale used for $5.99,I decided to pick it up,and boy,am I glad I did! This is a powerful and moving film about the disintegration of an Irish-American family in South Boston.First time director Brad Gann also wrote the screenplay and did a remarkable job.The performances by the actors playing the family are excellent to a one.Brendan Gleeson is magnificent as the Vietnam vet father,whose loss of work and descent into alcohol-fueled despair make him a shadow of the man who was.Melissa Leo as the Irish born mother(her brogue is perfect)clinging to faith and tradition shines.Emily Van Camp is great as the pregnant daughter who decides to go it alone.Tom Guiry shows both love and menace as the thuggish older brother.Michael Angarano,as the center of the film,younger son Cole who has baseball dreams is a revelation.10/10
If you want a traditional story, with a main conflict, a villain, a hero, and a resolution, you may not enjoy this movie. But as an independent coming-of-age movie, I found it to be excellent.The characters all demonstrate great depth, as other reviews have said. The acting is wonderful. This movie captures life - growing up - in south Boston. There is pregnancy. There is cancer. There is baseball. There is theft. But the movie is not about any one of those things. It is about humanity and living.Other movies this year have done a better job in building tension. Other movies have been funnier. Other movies have included more commentary - a better moral - about human life. But no movie has captured the essential roller coaster of life better than this movie.The twists, while not as shocking as others, are more real. The sadness of the movie comes in part from your familiarity with the situations. I highly recommend this movie and I hope you choose to watch it and enjoy it.
BLACK IRISH is one of those little Independent films that manage to give more to the audience than the extreme constrictions of time and budget would suggest. Writer/director Brad Gunn (his first film) manages to tell a story about an Irish family from South Boston that is sincere, realistic, poignant, and profound, and though he worked with a small budget and a shooting schedule of 22 days, he has produced a fine little gem of a film.The McKay family has problems: father Desmond (Brendan Glesson) lacks work and spends most of his time drinking beer and watching baseball on TV, having been a promising baseball player as a youngster but nipped by the Vietnam War into glum lethargy; mother Margaret (Melissa Leo) resents the shadow of the man she married and works as a social worker to support her family; daughter Kathleen (Emily VanKamp) is pregnant, unwed, and when denied the choice of abortion by her mother's strong Catholicism is determined to have the child by herself, giving it the loving home she feels she has been denied; son Terry (Tom Guiry) is a tortured delinquent who is a gang member and always in conflict with the law; and youngest son Cole (the excellent young 20-year-old Michael Angarano of 'One Last Thing', 'Man in the Chair', 'Snow Angels', 'Lords of Dogtown', 'Seabiscuit', etc) is conflicted by wanting to be a priest versus wanting to be a professional baseball player - he is the good kid and the last hope of his parents.Terry tricks Cole into accompanying a house break-in and the trouble begins. The financial crisis at home drives Cole to get a job in a restaurant, and drives Desmond to menial work shining shoes. The family will support Kathleen's pregnancy, but that strips the income to the point that Cole must leave his Catholic school to be in public school, and while that seems to dash his hopes for a career in baseball, the coach at his public school (Finn Curtin) acknowledges Cole's talent and promises a future. Terry's lifestyle as a hoodlum presents increasing problems and at one point Cole gathers the courage to confront Terry during a robbery plot at Cole's work place and Terry is seriously wounded. We discover a hidden fact about Desmond that explains some of his sociopath behavior to his family and it is this discovery, coinciding with Terry's gunshot injury and Kathleen's tough life as an unwed working pregnant girl, that pulls the family unit back together.If the plot sound like soap opera rest assured it is not. This is an intensely realistic examination of a fragile Irish Catholic family striving to makes sense of a world that is increasingly chaotic. All of the actors are excellent, but the extraordinary sensitivity and skill of young Michael Angarano make this a film to cherish. And Brad Gann is assuredly a talent to watch! Very highly recommended. Grady Harp