This Irish gen Z romance begins so naturally, on Halloween in Dublin where Trinity College students are partying in an abandoned building. Rugby player Jason (Adam Lunnon-Collery) is chatting up aspiring indie film-maker Charlie (Liath Hannon); their conversation is laidback and intense, light-hearted and meaningful, like life. “I’m in character as an arrogant jock,” jokes Jason. We’ve just watched him taking stick in the locker room for having his ears pierced. Now you can practically see his heart thumping in his chest talking to Charlie, who is trans.
The pair spend the night drifting through the city; they message a drug dealer (to score fireworks not drugs) and film each other with a Super 8 camera. Nobody hassles them. The movie is gentle and sweet until a sudden reveal – a twist that will require a stiff test of your ability to suspend disbelief, that almost verges on clumsy. But the charisma and lovely naturalism of performances from newcomers Lunnon-Collery and Hannon carries it off. Lunnon-Collery is particularly excellent as Jason, all warmth and charm on the surface.
And fair play to the script by first-time feature director Donncha Gilmore, which gets more interesting as the film goes on, introducing ideas about regret and the unreliability of memory. Jason gets a jolt to his sense of identity: his certainty in himself as the good guy, a friend to the weak. He experiences a wave of shame over something from his past, events that he has reshaped in his memory to take the sting out. An impressive debut.