Poster Boys

"You matched with my teacher on Tinder and now she's giving me homework through you?..........ARE YOU INSANE??"

"What, what... What's the big deal?"

"You don't get it, she's out to ruin my life!"

"By making sure you're well educated?"

One of many humorous back and forths between uncle and nephew throughout Poster Boys, an entertaining new comedy drama from Irish writer/director Dave Minogue.

Al Clancy (Trevor O'Connell) isn't having the best time of his life. His job's a joke, he's broke, his love-life's D.O.A......wait back, up, went full mid 90's there. Tinder is trolling him, his car is banjaxed and his job delivering posters around Dublin isn't exactly fulfilling. Plus he's on the verge of being kicked out of his gaff by an Irish landlord who says namaste unironically. Things change when his sister wins a ticket to a festival and he's tasked with looking after his nephew Karl (Ryan Minogue-Lee) for the week. Karl isn't an easy child to warm to and a miscommunication leads to them both road tripping around Ireland as Al tries to get his life back on track.

At no point in Poster Boys are you unsure of the finish but the journey's a charming, warm & funny one that isn't afraid of shying away from the darker problems facing young people in modern Irish society. It's a well shot and economic (gotta love a film under 90 minutes) look at a relationship you rarely see onscreen. Uncle and nephew, a whole different dynamic to father and son, one where if you play your cards right you can have a lot of laughs and the story mines plenty of humour from their burgeoning friendship. A drawn on beard, a wake up with a well aimed football, the sadness of not getting a free ice cream, a preference for marshmallows and so on. But thankfully there's more to it than that.

A recurring theme in Irish cinema is its ability to make you laugh seconds before kicking you in the stones. Behind Al's pleasant demeanour you can sense he's far from happy with the way life has turned out and Trevor O'Connell nails that growing sadness and frustration that's become such a common factor in the lives of young Irish men. A chat on a Kilkenny city bridge between Al and an old school friend hitting the nail right on the head, laughs and unspoken lament, more said in the silences than the words, pointing out men's inability to talk about anything other than the opposite sex and pints even when we want to. Karl's a troubled little chap too and the film deftly sketches a backstory that explains why he acts the way he acts. Growing up feeling like an afterthought and always being forgotten plays hell with the psyche and realising that will help you identify with Karl even when he starts doing horrible things. Ryan Minogue-Lee has a way with comic timing that will see him go far.  But it's when they are together and playing off each other that the film really shines with the chemistry created feeling welcomingly genuine.

Poster Boys is screening (link here) at the online Galway Film Fleadh on Tuesday evening. There's a few belly laughs (the Ian Dempsey one is great), an affecting storyline, some fun new Irish faces and confident direction from Minogue in his feature length debut. It's well worth your time.