The Young Offenders – Film Review by Catherine Sanz

Director: Peter Foott
Writer: Peter Foott
Stars: Hilary Rose, Chris Walley, Ciaran Bermingham

Two boys, one bale of cocaine, and a few beautiful scenes of the Cork countryside are a recipe designed to succeed. In The Young Offenders, written and directed by Peter Foott, the tried and tested tale of friends on a road trip is given a hilariously Irish spin.

Conor and Jock are two Cork city boys with a lot of notions about how the world works, including the idea that getting classed as a “young offender” is a free pass to commit almost any crime. When they hear that one bale of the cocaine from the 2007 seizure off the Cork coast is still missing, they decide to cycle down there to look for it. Jock (Chris Walley) entices his best friend Conor (Alex Murphy) with the €7mil price tag that the bale would retail for, never mind the fact that they have no idea how to sell it after they find it.

The trip gets off to a rocky start with the obsessive compulsive Garda Healy (Dominic MacHale) in hot pursuit of the boys because he believes he’s tracking down one of Cork’s most prolific bike thieves . MacHale parodies a Garda officer with such conviction he didn’t even have to speak to leave the audience in stitches. PJ Gallagher plays a small but memorable role as a crazed lunatic with an unexplained disability. His power to infuse impeccable comedic timing into a character that could have easily been frightening is quite impressive.

The relationship between Conor and Jock is heart warming because it appears to be so genuinely Irish in all its haphazard displays of masculinity and affection. Despite the plot line, the movie is rarely silly. On their journey to find the cocaine, they discover dark aspects of each other’s home lives and upbringing. They also realise that, with or without €7mil worth of cocaine, their friendship will always be full of spontaneous mishaps and dramatic outbursts. A truly one-of-a-kind bromance.