Christopher Abbott and Barry Keoghan Drama

You’ll never look at pastoring the same way after reading this knock them downthe dark drama debut from writer-director Christopher Andrews, tells the story of two Irish farmers embroiled in a long and bloody turf war. Relentlessly bleak, there’s more livestock gore than any film in recent memory – the closest thing being Irish director Billy O’Brien’s 2005 cattle thriller, isolation — This violent first film had more to do with its starring roles than Christopher Abbott and Barry Keoghan than its sombre storytelling.

The two striking actors play pastoralists struggling to survive in the muddy hills of western Ireland, when a long-standing feud between their families turns into an all-out melee (or is it a sheep fight?). As soon as the movie starts, and the battle more or less begins, there’s a problem knock them down This is how we are plunged directly into a conflict of which we know very little about its key actors. Not only does the movie move in one go, it drives, crashes, drags, and stabs from scene to scene.

The brief prologue does reveal a major trauma that happened years ago at the hands of Michael (Abbott), who was separated from his sister and Michael after the latter claimed he was divorcing Michael’s father, Ray (Colm Meaney). Mom was in a car accident. When we meet Ray soon after a few scenes, we can understand why: he’s bossy and downright unpleasant, and because of his bad knees, he sits in a kitchen chair all day, and whenever poor Michael walks He would scold the latter upon entering.

It’s not a pleasant family, Michael’s sister Caroline (Nora Jane Noon) is now married to a bitter and drunken shepherd named Gary (Paul Read) (Paul Redd). Their son Jack (Keoghan) is younger than Michael, and although the two are related, they are hardly friends. When Michael claimed that two sheep from his flock had been stolen, an argument broke out that quickly spiraled out of control. Knives, guns, multiple mutilations, a beheading and another car crash are all thrown into the mix with no viable ending in sight.

knock them down The weather is so severe that sitting through it can be a chore. But the tension and underlying adrenaline here are enough to keep you hooked for at least an hour. Andrews does an excellent job directing his two leads, both of whom bring some humanity to characters trapped in a downward spiral of violence and revenge. Abbott immerses himself in a role that requires him to speak fluent Gaelic (which is entirely believable to these untrained ears), not to mention covering himself in dirt and blood. Keoghan is a consistently mesmerizing performer, transforming Jack into a vulnerable young man whose moral conscience has been frayed by years of poverty, isolation and toxic masculinity.

The latter appears to be the dominant force ruling a god-forsaken corner of Ireland, and in the film’s bloodiest scene, dozens of sheep are illegally slaughtered so that their hind legs can be sold for cheap meat. Andrews and photographer Nick Cook’s approach is entirely biblical (pearl of the sky) captures the carnage and other difficult scenes against a backdrop of endless stretches of rolling mountains, with the sun moving in and out of clouds.

But the director ultimately took his dark premise too far, losing credibility as his characters kept doing extremely stupid and destructive things. With the exception of Caroline, who planned to escape to Cork, possibly taking Jack with her, everyone else was doomed to a miserable life, a situation that apparently had not changed over the centuries. (According to Ray, his family’s sheep have been grazing in the mountains for 500 years.) The men literally and figuratively got stuck in the mire, to a tragic end. knock them down It seems the only way out is to be killed or to try to survive.