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.