As originally launched from the Bronx in the 1970s, hip-hop has always been about the powerless using language as a weapon of power, have-nots availing themselves of the tools at hand — turntables and words — to rage against the overlords. In “Kneecap,” a frenetic, funny, searingly angry film from Northern Ireland, language — Irish Gaelic — serves as an active force of rebellion channeled through the beats and braggadocio of African American rap. Very little gets lost in the translation.
The movie’s a rude, scruffy winner, a music bio/cash-in reconfigured as a deadly serious prank. It bears stressing that Kneecap is a genuine act, with rappers Naoise “Móglái Bap” Ó Cairealláin, Liam “Mo Chara” Óg Ó Hannaidh and JJ “DJ Próvái” Ó Dochartaigh all playing cheekily fictionalized versions of themselves. The group rose to local fame in 2017 and 2018 with defiant shows and mixtapes that included Irish lyrics extolling the use of recreational drugs and the necessity of standing up to the British authorities and the “peelers” (police). Seven years on, Mo Chara and Móglái Bap are no longer the scrawny teenagers they once were, but their performing charisma carries straight to the screen — you’re forgiven if you mistake them for professional actors, Mo Chara especially.
Speaking of professional actors, here’s Michael Fassbender as Móglái Bap’s father, Arlo, a firebrand republican who’s been living underground for years, supposed dead by the police and most of western Belfast while being resented for his abandonment by his long-suffering wife (Simone Kirby) and son, both of whom know his whereabouts. One of the strengths of “Kneecap” is that its heroes have lost faith in all the putative grown-ups in this battle.
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As originally launched from the Bronx in the 1970s, hip-hop has always been about the powerless using language as a weapon of power, have-nots availing themselves of the tools at hand — turntables and words — to rage against the overlords. In “Kneecap,” a frenetic, funny, searingly angry film from Northern Ireland, language — Irish Gaelic — serves as an active force of rebellion channeled through the beats and braggadocio of African American rap. Very little gets lost in the translation.
The movie’s a rude, scruffy winner, a music bio/cash-in reconfigured as a deadly serious prank. It bears stressing that Kneecap is a genuine act, with rappers Naoise “Móglái Bap” Ó Cairealláin, Liam “Mo Chara” Óg Ó Hannaidh and JJ “DJ Próvái” Ó Dochartaigh all playing cheekily fictionalized versions of themselves. The group rose to local fame in 2017 and 2018 with defiant shows and mixtapes that included Irish lyrics extolling the use of recreational drugs and the necessity of standing up to the British authorities and the “peelers” (police). Seven years on, Mo Chara and Móglái Bap are no longer the scrawny teenagers they once were, but their performing charisma carries straight to the screen — you’re forgiven if you mistake them for professional actors, Mo Chara especially.
Speaking of professional actors, here’s Michael Fassbender as Móglái Bap’s father, Arlo, a firebrand republican who’s been living underground for years, supposed dead by the police and most of western Belfast while being resented for his abandonment by his long-suffering wife (Simone Kirby) and son, both of whom know his whereabouts. One of the strengths of “Kneecap” is that its heroes have lost faith in all the putative grown-ups in this battle.