TEXAS, USA — I was about a third of the way through “Kneecap,” a spark plug of a movie about young Belfast lads putting a beat to anti-colonization anxiety, when I just had to stop and search the title on Spotify: Yup, I thought. There it is, clear as day.
This was no made-up group of punkish rogues finding their voice, it turns out, but a very real one that’s been at the forefront of a new Irish hip-hop movement. (Cue the New York Times profile.) Don’t be too bothered if you’re unaware of the eponymous trio beforehand; turns out that only enhances the experience of watching director Rich Peppiatt’s movie about discovering music as one’s path to political haymaking.
That path is journeyed by Naoise Ó Cairealláin and Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, who feature in the movie but also, together, make up the real-life Kneecap with their stage personalities of Moglai Bap and Mo Chara, respectively. There’s some dramatized preamble involving the lifelong mates, undercover baptisms and Naoise’s IRA father who faked his own death, kicking off a storyline that never feels all that vital aside from the fact that it gives us a chance to bask in Michael Fassbender. Really, though, “Kneecap” is most propulsive when it aligns with the perspective of JJ (also playing a version of himself), an unhappy teacher who sympathizes with the struggle to keep the Irish language alive but lacks motivation to join it.
How convenient, then, that JJ has a makeshift recording studio in his garage, and comes across Liam’s lyrics-filled notebook when he’s called upon by police in the middle of the night to translate his traditional Irish into modern English in the interrogation room. The revelation that ensues when he flips through the pages of poetry is a defining and definitive moment in “Kneecap”—Naoise and Liam’s rapping suddenly takes over a frenzied clash of images, their lyrics exploding onto the screen like chickenscratch as JJ crafts beats to match the words, his eyes widening like Neo when he’s released from the “The Matrix.” It’s JJ – soon to take on the stage alias of DJ Próvaí – who inspires Naoise and Liam to take their Irish-language rap to whatever masses will gather, with the hope that their lingual innovations can embolden a movement simmering on the fringes of a story that never entirely foregrounds it.
And honestly? That’s for the best. If “Kneecap” is an exploration of language as pride in one’s identity, the relationship that blooms between Naois, Liam and JJ as they discover a joint calling represents a culture reasserting itself. Fleeting images of street protests advocating for what would later come to be known as the Irish Language Act underscore the movie’s light documentary sheen, but the dizzying momentum that powers stretches of the core trio’s drama helps characterize the tale as a deeply personal one while Kneecap’s empowering, frustrated lyrics grows in stature—and as the line JJ treads between a boring life and an unpredictable one grows increasingly thin. Establishment forces put Kneecap in their sights, too, and a local detective keeps her foot on the gas to draw out Fassbender’s MIA rebel. Yet little of this amounts to much more than padding to ensure we get over the 90-minute mark.
A lot rides, then, on how “Kneecap” conveys the sociopolitical tension the real-life group was born out of. Those stakes might not reverberate as strongly as their rhymes, yet the performers’ English is spoken so thickly and with borderline impenetrable quickness that it ultimately serves to draw American audiences deeper into a story of a culture at war with itself; dwell too long on if you heard a word correctly and you may become overwhelmed by the movie’s sheer energy, itself further born out in Peppiatt’s appropriately distressed filmmaking choices of dynamic camerawork, obtuse angles and pacing that lurches ever forward, subplots be damned.
Just as enveloping is when “Kneecap” suddenly slams on the brakes, prodding (but alas, only prodding) at the compelling contrast between exuberant self-actualization and the cruddy reality JJ finds himself returning to every time he takes off the balaclava concealing his identity onstage and goes back home. If, as it’s suggested early on, “a country without a language is only half a nation,” then it’s hard not to get invested in JJ’s arc as a passive educator and later the boisterous DJ Próvaí, given how closely the movie parallels his emergence with that of his Irish-speaking countrymen. These awakenings don’t always crackle with such life. And though “Kneecap” is more a call to arms than thoroughly satisfying victory lap, it’s nonetheless a reminder about the urgency that art can instill into activism.
"Kneecap" is rated R for pervasive drug content and language, sexual content/nudity and some violence. It's now in theaters. Runtime: 1 hour, 45 minutes.
Starring: Moglai Bap, Mo Chara, DJ Próvaí, Josie Walker
Directed by Rich Preppiatt; written by Preppiatt, Moglai Bap, Mo Chara, DJ Próvaí
2024
