★★★☆☆
Mark O’Connor’s film is a formulaic, but confidently handled gangster flick set in the rock-hard Darndale district of north Dublin. John Connors is full of bull-necked conviction as Jason Connolly, a drug dealer working his way up the food chain and doing a bit of DJing on the side. Lying in wait is Kierston Wareing, set to full cougar mode as the wife of a deadly rival. “You wanna be the king, you gotta ride his missus!” yells Jason’s mate Dano (Fionn Walton, great in the loose-cannon Joe Pesci role).
We’ve seen it all before, but not heard it like this: the dialogue, thick with Dublin slang, is one of the film’s trump cards. It’s slightly marred by a denouement that breaks with plausibility, but this is a punchy tale, told with economy and power.
18, 92min