Black Irish (2007)
Average Rating: 4.9/10
Reviews Counted: 13
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 9
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 3
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 2
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 1,654
My Rating
Movie Info
A young man struggles to grow up with principles as his family begins to self-destruct around him in this coming of age drama. Cole McKay (Michael Angarano) is a boy in his middle-teens growing up in an Irish-Catholic family in Boston. While Cole has dreams of playing major league baseball some day, his parents Desmond (Brendan Gleeson) and Margaret (Melissa Leo) are blind to his ambitions, and his older brother Terry (Tom Guiry) is a petty criminal who is unwittingly drawing Cole into his
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Cast
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Brendan Gleeson
Desmond -
Michael Angarano
Cole -
Tom Guiry
Terry -
Emily VanCamp
Kathleen -
Melissa Leo
Margaret -
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Scott Winters
Doctor -
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All Critics (13) | Top Critics (3) | Fresh (6) | Rotten (9) | DVD (2)
While the film has many well-observed moments...it ultimately suffers from its relentless piling on of crises.
Black Irish boasts many memorable scenes and fine characterizations but ultimately plays more like a series of snapshots come to life than as an organically satisfying story.
Top CriticA small-bore Southie coming-of-age drama whose heart is just a bit bigger than its cliches.
The film draws strength from sensitively scrutinizing character, but tends to confuse Catholic guilt with narrative redemption.
Irish coming-of-age Beantown drama reminiscent of Angela's Ashes, especially in terms of maintaining a relentlessly pessimistic and morose tone.
Could almost be labeled a Gaelic minstrel show, so riddled is it with every conceivable cliché and stereotype ever associated with the sons of Eire.
It'll be worth watching to see if [director Brad Gann] plays to his strengths on future projects.
The problem with Black Irish is that, like those photos shifted to cover the holes, not everything is hanging in quite the right place here.
Gleeson inhabits the character in such a way that one cannot help but wonder how many Irish fathers like this he has personally known.
It's too sincere and thoughtful to be immediately dismissed. But it is terribly frustrating viewing: so much time and creative energy spent making a movie that, in one form or another, the audience has already seen.
A drismal drama rather reminiscent of Angela's Ashes, especially in terms of maintaining a relentlessly pessimistic and morose tone.
The difficulties of coming-of-age in an Irish-American family with a violent older brother and a self-destructive father.
Writer-director-producer Brad Gann's tale of growing up in blue-collar South Boston features a strong central performance, but it doesn't miss a cliche of hardscrabble adolescence.
The blarney isn't the only thing that's thick in writer-director Brad Gann's Black Irish.
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October 25, 2007:
Critical Consensus: Life Has Its Ups And Downs, Darjeeling Is TransportingThis week at the movies we have a lovelorn single dad (Dan in Real Life, starring Steve Carell and...
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DIRECTED BY BRAD GANN
Wow. This movie was not at all what I was expecting. it was much better then what I had anticipated. I thought it was just going to be based around baseball and I was really wrong. Although baseball is always there, the story takes on much more. This is about a family that has had many misfortunes, two parents who are in a loveless marriage and who blame each other for their mishaps. An older son who is well on his way to being in and out of prison and who believes his parents don't care for him. A daughter being forced into doing what her mother believes is morally right even when her daughter doesn't agree with it. A younger son who is just desperately trying to connect with his father only to be shut down at every opportunity. Great performances all around, but Angarano and Guiry stand out for me in this movie, They really give there all in this film. It's at times funny, intense and heart breaking. Just really good and I hope more people see it.