Pixie
Deadly priests and nuns with guns stalk the beautiful countryside of County Sligo in Barnaby Thompson’s sweet, diverting and bloody black comedy.
Colleen and the boys: Olivia Cooke, Ben Hardy and Daryl McCormack
As if the
Catholic priesthood didn’t have enough bad press, this bloody black comedy
should give it a few more sleepless nights. From an outsize caption announcing
Once Upon a Time in the West – of Ireland, the film asserts its
Leone-esque/Tarantino-esque influence, before bunking down in the bogs of County
Sligo. More accurately, this is Martin and John Michael McDonagh territory and there’s a ripe, self-conscious
dark banter, to be sure. But there’s a bright spark in this damp moorland and
her name is Olivia Cooke, who takes the title role.
Pixie is no
lightweight sprite, but a colleen surrounded by eejits. The Mancunian Ms Cooke
has already established her knack for inhabiting different skins, having played
a variety of Americans (Me and Earl and
the Dying Girl, Ready Player One), a Cockney murder suspect in The Limehouse Golem and the social
climbing Becky Sharp in ITV and Amazon’s Vanity
Fair. Here, she has the measure of Preston Thompson's dialogue, dropping
cultural references to shame her less well-versed brethren.
Stepdaughter
of the local gangster Dermot (Colm Meaney), Pixie Hardy spies a chance of
re-igniting her dream of escaping to San Francisco when two love-struck
virgins, Frank and Harland, come knocking at her door. Hoping to capitalize on Pixie’s
alleged promiscuity, the lads find her a more useful ally when they stumble
into “murky waters.” When Harland runs over Pixie’s ex-boyfriend Colin (Rory
Fleck Byrne), he finds the corpse in possession of a stash of ecstasy, worth
almost €1 million, according to Google. But until Pixie joins their cause,
Harland and Frank are ill-equipped to cope with the brutal drug fraternity of
the local priesthood and their nuns with guns.
While
initially the humour feels a little forced – and the violence a tad perfunctory
– the film settles into its stride once we get to know Pixie, Frank and Harland.
As the pretty and pretty ingenuous Frank, Ben Hardy (Roger Taylor in Bohemian Rhapsody) makes a loveable foil
and, thankfully, doesn’t overplay his gormlessness. He may be a little dim, but
he knows his capital cities. And Daryl McCormack is sweetly disarming as
Harland. There’s robust support from Meaney as the mobster meekly in thrall to
Nigella Lawson and Alec Baldwin as an ice cream-gobbling priest armed with a
Glock and Bible. The sharply lit fells of Sligo and a strong soundtrack (The
Cramps, Hidden Charms, Lee Hazlewood, Marlena Shaw) further sugar the positives
of this entertaining bit of malarkey.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Olivia Cooke, Ben Hardy, Daryl
McCormack, Rory Fleck Byrne, Fra Fee, Chris Walley, Pat Shortt, Frankie
McCafferty, Ned Dennehy, Dylan Moran, Sebastian De Souza, Colm Meaney, Alec
Baldwin, Olivia Byrne, Eoin Duffy.
Dir Barnaby Thompson, Pro Barnaby Thompson and James Clayton, Screenplay Preston Thompson, Ph John de Borman, Pro Des Nicola Moroney, Ed
Robbie Morrison, Music Gerry Diver
and David Holmes, Costumes Hazel Webb
Crozier, Dialect coaches Nick Trumble
and Brendan Gunn.
Fragile Films/Ingenious Media/Northern Ireland Screen-Paramount Pictures.
93 mins. UK. 2020. Rel: 23 October 2020. Cert. 15.