The Young Offenders (film)

Last updated

The Young Offenders
The Young Offenders poster.png
Theatrical poster
Directed by Peter Foott
Written byPeter Foott
Produced by
  • Peter Foott
  • Julie Ryan
Starring
CinematographyPatrick Jordan
Edited byColin Campbell
Production
companies
Distributed byWildcard Distribution
Release dates
Running time
85 minutes
CountryIreland
LanguageEnglish
Budget€50,000 ($62,509) [1]
Box office€735,532 ($919,415) [2]

The Young Offenders is a 2016 Irish comedy film written, directed, and co-produced by Peter Foott. [3] [4] [5] [6] It stars Alex Murphy, Chris Walley, Dominic MacHale, Hilary Rose, Shane Casey, Pascal Scott, and P. J. Gallagher.

Contents

A television series sequel, airing for four seasons on RTÉ and BBC Three from February 2018, saw much of the film cast reprise their roles.

Plot

Best friends Conor and Jock are two teenagers from Cork who dress the same, act the same, and even have the same weak facial hair. Jock is a notorious bike thief who plays a daily game of cat-and-mouse with the bike-theft-obsessed Garda Healy, and he lives with his drunken, abusive dad. Conor is the son of a single mum, Mairéad, who works in a fish shop at the English Market and with whom he has a strained relationship. When a narcotic trafficking boat capsizes off the southwest coast of County Cork, leading to the seizure of 61 bales of cocaine, each worth €7 million, word gets out that there is a bale missing.

Conor and Jock steal two bicycles and go on a road trip, hoping to find the missing cocaine, which they can sell and therefore escape their troubled home lives. Unfortunately for them, Healy had hid a GPS tracker in the bike that Jock stole for himself as a trap and is in hot pursuit. By chance, the boys find the bale of coke in a ruined castle that Conor was defecating in, in the possession of a disabled narcotics dealer named Ray. They steal it while he is asleep but he wakes up and unsuccessfully tries to retake it.

Using Conor's sweater which he left with Ray to keep him warm while he slept, and had Conor's name on it, Ray gives chase to the pair. In the midst of celebrating their victory, Conor unknowingly snags the bag on barbed wire and rips it, so the coke slowly leaks out on the journey home until there is none left by the time they get back. The two fall out and Jock gets intoxicated and passes out, while Conor comes home and eventually patches things up with his mum. Jock's father comes home and violently assaults him until Healy comes to Jock's home intending to arrest him, subsequently realising the extent of Jock's life at home.

However, Jock sneaks out upon being informed that Ray is searching for them by a neighbourhood friend. Ray later tracks them down, steals a nail gun from a hardware shop, and angrily invades Conor's house as Jock gets to his house to tell him about Ray, and Healy simultaneously gets there searching for Conor. Ray knocks out Healy and threatens Conor, Jock and Mairéad, not believing that the boys are so stupid as to lose €7 million worth of cocaine. Strangely enough, a local thug named Billy Murphy whom the pair put in prison on narcotics charges by tricking Healy into thinking he stole a bike enters, looking for revenge against the boys.

In a rare show of intellect, Conor tricks Ray into thinking Billy stole the coke and a struggle ensues where Mairéad ends up knocking out both Ray and Billy, and both are arrested. Conor and Jock spin the tale to paint Healy as a hero to the media, to his chagrin, while Jock is put into foster care with Conor and his mother due to his abusive upbringing.

Cast

Production

The film is based on the seizure of 1.5 tonnes of cocaine off the Irish coast near Mizen Head in 2007. [4] The film was shot in Cork and along the Wild Atlantic Way. [7]

Release

The Young Offenders premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh on 8 July 2016, and won Best Irish Feature Film at the festival. It became the fastest Irish film to break the €1 million mark at the Irish box office in 2016. [8] Carnaby Sales and Distribution has acquired the international sales rights to the film, while a deal with Vertigo Releasing would see the film released in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. [9]

The film had its premiere for the United States at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, on 23 September 2016, where it won a Special Mention for Best Comedy Debut. [10] It was released in the United Kingdom on 13 January 2017. [11]

Reception and awards

The Irish Examiner scored the film 4/5, saying "huge potential for that rare breakout hit which also attains a cultish following with endlessly quotable one liners". [12] The Irish Times named it as one of the highlights of the Galway Film Fleadh, saying that Walley and Murphy are "brilliant as track suited layabouts who, though lazy, impulsive and ignorant, remain endlessly lovable throughout". [13] After its premiere in the United States, The Austin Chronicle called the film "a charming return for Irish comedy". [14] On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 100% approval rating based on 22 reviews. [15]

YearAwardCategoryResult
2016 Los Angeles Comedy Festival Best Feature Film, Best Feature Screenplay, Best Feature DirectionWon
2016 Irish Film Festival London The Súil Eile Award, The Ros Hubbard Award for ActingWon
2016 Fantastic Fest Special Mention for Best Comedy DebutWon
2016 Galway Film Fleadh Best Irish Feature FilmWon
2016Dublin Film Critics AwardsBest Irish Film[ citation needed ]Nominated
2017Irish Film and Television AwardsBest Script - Film [16] Won
2017Irish Film and Television AwardsBest Film [16] Nominated
2017Irish Film and Television AwardsBest Actor in a Lead Role - Alex Murphy [16] Nominated
2017Irish Film and Television AwardsBest Actor in a Supporting Role - Chris Walley [16] Nominated
2017Irish Film and Television AwardsBest Actress in a Supporting Role - Hilary Rose [16] Nominated
2017Irish Film and Television AwardsBest Director- Film - Peter Foott [16] Nominated
2017Irish Film and Television AwardsRising Star Award - Peter Foott [16] Nominated

In other media

Television

In May 2017, a six episode television series was announced. [17] The series began to air in February 2018, [18] with the BBC commissioning a second season which aired in late 2019. [19] [20] A third season aired in 2020. [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galway</span> City in Connacht, Ireland

Galway is a city in the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the fifth most populous city on the island of Ireland and the fourth most populous in the Republic of Ireland, with a population at the 2022 census of 85,910.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Sheehan</span> Irish actor (born 1988)

Robert Sheehan is an Irish actor. He is best known for television roles such as Nathan Young in Misfits, Darren Treacy in Love/Hate, and Klaus Hargreeves in The Umbrella Academy, as well as film roles such as Tom Natsworthy in Mortal Engines and Simon Lewis in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English Market</span> Historic market in Cork city, Ireland

The English Market is a municipal food market in the center of Cork city, Ireland. It stretches from Princes Street to the Grand Parade, and combines Princes Street Market and Grand Parade Market. The market is regarded for both its mid-19th century architecture and locally produced artisan food.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eoin Macken</span> Irish actor, model, author and director

Eoin Christopher Macken is an Irish actor, director, and model.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emma Eliza Regan</span> Irish actress

Emma Eliza Regan is an Irish actress who has appeared in Irish feature films The Fading Light (2009), Love Eternal (2013), Darkness on the Edge Of Town (2014), and Penance 2018, and on television in Aisling's Diary (2009), Jack Taylor (2012), and Vikings (2020).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dónall Ó Héalai</span> Irish actor and voice actor (born 1987)

Dónall Ó Héalai is an Irish actor and voice actor. He was named a 2020 Screen International Star of Tomorrow and twice nominated for best leading actor in film at the Irish Film and Television awards in 2020 and 2022. He was also the recipient of the Wilde Card award at the Oscar Wilde awards in Los Angeles in 2022 as well as one to watch in 2021 by The Irish Examiner.

Jordanne Jones is an Irish actress. She began her career as a child actress, earning a Dublin Film Critics' Circle Award as well as an IFTA nomination for her debut film role in Frank Berry's I Used to Live Here.

Peter Foott is an Irish director, producer and screenwriter known for his work on The Young Offenders.

Dead Along The Way is a 2016 Irish crime comedy film, directed by Maurice O'Carroll, and produced by Sinead O' Riordan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kelly Thornton</span> Irish actress (born 1997)

Kelly Thornton is an Irish actress who began her career as a child actress. She is best known for her roles as Corrina Mallon in the RTÉ drama Clean Break (2015) and Emma in the film Life's a Breeze (2013), which earned her an IFTA nomination for Best Actress.

Alex Murphy is an Irish actor. He is best known for his role as Conor MacSweeney in the 2016, comedy film The Young Offenders, for which he received an IFTA nomination for best actor in a lead film role.

Chris Walley is an Irish actor. He is best known for his role as Jock O'Keeffe in the comedy film The Young Offenders (2016), for which he won an IFTA Award, and its subsequent RTÉ and BBC Three series. He won a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance in The Lieutenant of Inishmore revival on the West End.

<i>The Young Offenders</i> (TV series) Television series

The Young Offenders is an Irish coming-of-age television sitcom, developed by Peter Foott, for RTÉ and BBC Three. Based on the IFTA-winning 2016 film of the same name, the first series began broadcasting on 1 February 2018, to generally favourable reviews. The series follows the lives of Conor MacSweeney and Jock O'Keeffe, lovable rogues from Cork.

<i>Michael Inside</i> 2017 Irish film

Michael Inside is a 2017 Irish prison film, written, directed and co-produced by Frank Berry. It was nominated for four Irish Film & Television Awards and won the Best Film prize.

Dominic MacHale is an Irish actor. He is best known for his role as Sergeant Healy in the 2016 comedy film The Young Offenders. He went on to reprise his role in the 2018 television series of the same name, produced by the BBC. He started acting while working towards his BSc in Microbiology in University College Cork, which he gained in 2010. The Young Offenders was his first film role. Until then he had been mainly a theatre actor. His father is the academic Des MacHale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danielle Galligan</span> Irish actress, theatre maker, and poet (born 1992)

Danielle Galligan is an Irish actress, theatre maker, and poet. On television, she is known for her roles in the Netflix series Shadow and Bone (2021–2023) and the RTÉ series Obituary (2023). Her films include Lakelands (2022).

Hilary Rose is an Irish actress and writer. She is best known for her portrayal of Mairéad MacSweeney in The Young Offenders franchise, including the 2016 feature film and its subsequent television series, which commenced in 2018.

Arracht is a 2019 Irish period drama film directed and written by Tomás Ó Súilleabháin set during the Great Famine of Ireland. It was selected as the Irish entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.

Julie Ryan is an Irish film and TV producer from Cork, Ireland, known for her work on The Young Offenders (2016), I Never Cry (2020), and Finding You (2020).

References

  1. ↑ Guerin, Harry. "Behind the scenes with The Young Offenders". RTÉ . Retrieved 15 February 2018.
  2. ↑ "The Young Offenders (2016) - Financial Information". The Numbers . Retrieved 15 February 2018.
  3. ↑ "The Young Offenders".
  4. 1 2 "#TRAILERCHEST: The Young Offenders looks like it might be one of your new favourite Irish films - JOE.ie".
  5. ↑ "Young Offenders duo reveal on-set rivalry".
  6. ↑ "The Young Offenders have lots of reasons to appeal".
  7. ↑ "Young Offenders film debut - Independent.ie".
  8. ↑ "The Young Offenders crosses €1 million at the Irish Box Office". entertainment.ie. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  9. ↑ "Carnaby to sell Cork comedy The Young Offenders worldwide". scannain.com. 2 November 2016. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  10. ↑ "Report From Fantastic Fest Day Eight - And The 2016 Fantastic Fest Awards". fantasticfest.com. 30 September 2016. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  11. ↑ "UK Weekend Box Office 13th January 2017 - 15th January 2017". www.25thframe.co.uk. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  12. ↑ "The Young Offenders review- Irish comedy antics". irishexaminer.com. Irish Examiner. 14 September 2016. Archived from the original on 15 September 2016.
  13. ↑ "Mad Mary and Young Offenders take Galway Film Fleadh by storm". irishtimes.com. Irish Times. 11 July 2016. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  14. ↑ "Fantastic Fest Review: The Young Offenders". austinchronicle.com. Austin Chronicle. 25 September 2016.
  15. ↑ "The Young Offenders (2016)". rottentomatoes.com. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Irish Film and Television Awards - 2017 Awards". imdb.com. IMDb. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  17. ↑ Clarke, Donald (9 May 2018). "The Young Offenders is to become a TV series". The Irish Times .
  18. ↑ "The Young Offenders, Series 1: Episode 1". BBC iPlayer . 1 February 2018.
  19. ↑ Moore, Paul (8 February 2018). "OFFICIAL: Brilliant news because The Young Offenders will be getting a second season". Joe.ie . Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  20. ↑ BBC confirms The Young Offenders season 2 return date, MSN.com, 25 October 2019, retrieved 27 October 2019
  21. ↑ "The Young Offenders: Series 3 returns to RTÉ on July 24th". iftn.ie. 9 July 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.