Kneecap: 'ballsy and brave' Irish-language music biopic

"The Troubles meets 'Trainspotting'" in this "riotous Belfast-set comedy" about the rise of the real-life hip hop trio Kneecap, said Ed Power in The Daily Telegraph. The members of the Irish-language group – Naoise Ó Cairealláin, Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh and J.J. Ó Dochartaigh – have never acted before, but "they impress playing cartoonish versions of their real selves while poking fun at clichés about Northern Ireland and its history of conflict".

In this telling, Liam and Naoise swerve from drug-dealing to music after meeting the budding producer J.J., who encourages them to channel their passion for the Irish language into hip hop. "There's lots of music in 'Kneecap', and the Public Enemy-style raps are explosive", but director Rich Peppiatt "never forgets he's making a movie rather than an extended music video". Hard-punching and hilarious, "the film directs a well-placed kick at the nether regions to anyone who insists music, politics and cinema cannot mix".

The rappers' "punky attitude, fondness for coke and ketamine", and "refusal to let the English language drown out their native tongue" have made them "social-media folk heroes as well as targets for right-wing tabloids and the British Government", said Alistair Harkness in The Scotsman. Sadly, this film "straitjackets their story" by turning it into, at best, an "annoyingly broad, post-"Trainspotting" 'YOOF culture' comedy" – and at worst, a "sentimentalised musical coming-of-age story", only with added "swearing and Class A drugs".

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I found it "one hell of a laugh", said Andrew Trendell on NME. It's also "full of heart", telling a working-class story "as a call for unity without punching down or patronising". Ballsy and brave, this is "one of the standout films of 2024".