Hyde Park Pick: Christy
This charming, compelling debut is the film we think you shouldn't miss this week.
Wendy Cook
It’s great to have a first-time feature filmmaker as the director behind our Hyde Park Pick this week, the charming and compelling Christy.
Adapted from his 2019 short of the same name, director Brandan Canty’s new work follows seventeen-year-old Christy as he reaches a crossroads. Thrown out of his suburban foster home, Christy must temporarily move in with his estranged older brother, Shane, in Cork’s inner city. But Shane wants something better for Christy.
Christy is a perfect mixture of gritty social realism and warm humour with shades of Shane Meadows. Where Canty could gratuitously peer into a community, he instead paints his characters with a level of depth and surprise.
Whilst this means there are still serious messages to consider, this is ultimately a nuanced and joyful film to watch, which announces Canty as a new filmmaker to really be excited about.
Christy is showing at HPPH from Fri 12 Sep. You can book tickets here.
