Kneecap

Peppiatt’s powerfully political comedy-drama about the survival of the Irish language is something of a miracle movie. Where else in the world could the legacy of trauma produce such hilarity and crowd-pleasing entertainment? Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh and Naoise Ó Cairealláin play themselves wonderfully in the origin story of their Belfast rap group Kneecap. We first meet them in the 2010s as drug-selling besties. More importantly, they’re staunch patriots who speak Irish as an act of cultural maintenance, and in defiance of British imperialism. When nerdy music teacher JJ Ó Dochartaigh enters the scene, he encourages the lads to turn their notebook scribblings into highly charged polemical rap songs (and becomes their DJ). What follows is a rowdy and cheerfully rude showbiz story following the trio through drug-hazed nights and clear-eyed days, as their music begins to impact the broader community while inevitably angering authorities. Subversive, sexy, unfiltered, and with a significant supporting role for Michael Fassbender, this freewheeling and finger-flipping music biopic hits all the right notes.