(2014, GB, 104 min) Dir Jim Laughlin. Cast Phil Laverty, James Gillen, Brendan Forde.
Spin off from the popular BBC NI TV show about a trio of track suit wearing wastrels on the streets of Belfast who have transcended the cultural divides of their city, united in their common interest of being wee turds. Their favoured forms of mischief involve general loutishness on the streets, calling the emergency services out to fake crises and then stoning their vehicles, stealing cars and joyriding them about the town all while getting “lit on Bucky”. Their big screen debut sees Diz, Mickey and Tummers being chased through Belfast city centre after stealing a rack of children’s clothes for Diz’s sisters baby and, once caught, being recruited to stop local drug dealers from the inside. Your ability to tolerate the Belfastards brand of comedy will depend entirely on your ability to spend more than an hour and a half in the company of such appalling scumbags though for some fans the trappings of the shows’ expansion from its half-hour slot to feature-length has diluted the rough-edged charms of the show. For some though the film’s depiction of the central trio’s lifestyle is implicitly condoning them but to those critics the Belfastards themselves would no doubt say “get away up yourself”.
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