Absurdity and farce rule the day in this black comedy. From the blues band in the rural pub to biblical rains to bodies in freezers with puzza. Not one to be analysed, just suspend reality, go with the flow and enjoy the ride.
Redemption of a Rogue
2020
Action / Comedy / Drama
Redemption of a Rogue
2020
Action / Comedy / Drama
Plot summary
Jimmy carries a leather, black doctor’s bag around with him containing the rope he plans to hang himself with. He returns home to the fictional town of Ballylough to the cold austere beauty of West Cavan to seek salvation for sins committed in the past before saying goodbye.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
October 18, 2021 at 06:39 AM
Director
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Jet Black Comedy
Drenched in dark humour - a drunken parable?
With themes touching on suicidal depression, child abuse and illness, disability, physical violence, death and biblical levels of sin and redemption - you might conclude this wasn't exactly a laugh-fest.
However, the portrayal of those undeniably dark subjects is often framed by dry, 'gallows' humour, wrapped in occasional surreal dream imagery or some other imaginative visual take. There's no pretension here either - it's an indie film, but this is less art-house more rough-house after a night at the pub.
I laughed out loud several times (to put that in context I am not unacquainted with depression myself, or indeed the real-life results of a suicide, there is a gulf of difference between laughing with these 'victims' and at them).
The soundtrack is pretty decent if you're into alt-blues/indie-folk, there are some scenes where it almost descends into a psych-musical (I wouldn't have minded it going further down that road).
Whilst the dark humour often works, and there is something approaching a positive take on redemption - there was, for me, also a prevalent undertone of near-nihilism - like the main protagonist - the film is navigating a perilous balancing act between hope and hopelessness.
To counter this, the line: 'You can think of multiple reasons to die, but only need one reason to live' could be offered as the spiritual core - also, sometimes you just have to laugh at the absurdity of life.