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The Barrytown Trilogy
They had nothing to lose, they risked it all.
Jimmy Rabbitte, just a thick-ya out of school, gets a brilliant idea: to put a soul band together in Barrytown, his slum home in north Dublin. First he needs musicians and singers: things slowly start to click when he finds three fine-voiced females virtually in his back yard, a lead singer (Deco) at a wedding, and, responding to his ad, an aging trumpet player, Joey "The Lips" Fagan.
CinemaSerf
Mar 14, 2024 · via TMDB
"Jimmy" (Robert Arkins) is a bit of a restless, creative, spirit and a man who is bored with the Dublin music scene. To rectify matters, he and his pal "Joey" (Johnny Murphy) - aka 'The Lips" decide to hold auditions to create a band. A band with an unique sound to challenge the prevailing mediocrity. After some frankly hilarious auditions that pitch the tone deaf straight into the arms of the fashion police, the pair manage to assemble ten folks as different as gin and Guinness. It's no easy task moulding these disparate and lively individuals into one coherent unit, but oddly enough - despite their differences - it's the music from the likes of Mack Rice ("Mustang Sally"), Al Green & Teenie Hodges and a range of established American soul songsters who manage to provide them all with a common language and purpose as they gradually start to gain some traction amongst a sceptical community and an even more cynical music business. It's fair to say that neither "Lips" nor "Jimmy" are high on the list at the diplomatic corps, so keeping these people from - quite literally at times - tearing each other apart is no mean feat. Being a Scot of a certain age from Glasgow, it's easy for me to appreciate the old adage that for many, the escape from post-industrial poverty was music - and both Danny Boyle and Roddy Doyle work well to create and engagingly plausible story of folks whose ambition is not to win a Grammy, but to have enough money to buy their kids milk in the morning. Those they assemble for the band are a myriad of characterful and colourful folks - some likeable, some certainly not - but put them on stage and the toes start tapping and all is forgiven. For a while, at least! There's a sense of real talent here, warts and all - and for just shy of two hours it's a compelling watch that reminded me that most bands started out with a talent scouting mechanism that didn't require the likes of Simon Cowell.
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
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Fandango At Home
Robert Arkins
Jimmy Rabbitte
Michael Aherne
Steven Clifford
Angeline Ball
Imelda Quirke
Maria Doyle Kennedy
Natalie Murphy
Dave Finnegan
Mickah Wallace
Bronagh Gallagher
Bernie McGloughlin
Glen Hansard
Outspan Foster
Dick Massey
Billy Mooney
Johnny Murphy
Joey 'The Lips' Fagan
Ken McCluskey
Derek Scully
Andrew Strong
Deco Cuffe
Colm Meaney
Jimmy Rabbitte, Sr.
Anne Kent
Mrs. Rabbitte
Andrea Corr
Sharon Rabbitte
Liam Carney
Duffy
Ger Ryan
Pawnbroker
Mark O'Regan
Father Molloy
Phelim Drew
Roddy the Reporter
Sean Hughes
Dave from Eeijit Records
Lance Daly
Kid with Harmonica
Eanna MacLiam
Failed Drug Buyer
Maura O'Malley
Joey's Mother
Owen O'Gorman
Duffy's Sidekick
Pat Leavy
Unemployment Official
John Cronin
Kid with Horse
Sheila Flitton
Church Cleaner
Jim Corr
Avant-Garde-A-Clue Band
Alan Parker
Eejit Record Producer
Sharon Corr
Fiddle Player (uncredited)
Caroline Corr
(uncredited)
David Appleby
Still Photographer
Peter Frampton
Makeup Supervisor
Alan Parker
Director
John Hubbard
Casting
Ros Hubbard
Casting
Dick Clement
Co-Producer
Ian La Frenais
Co-Producer
Marc Abraham
Co-Producer
Armyan Bernstein
Executive Producer
Tom Rosenberg
Executive Producer
Wilson Pickett
Original Music Composer
Roddy Doyle
Novel
Dick Clement
Screenplay
Ian La Frenais
Screenplay
Roddy Doyle
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Stripper Wives
1999
Sally's Beauty Spot
1990
Sign in to vote
Battle your watched movies head-to-head
Community Top Movies
Evil Dead II
1987 · 14 wins
The Dark Knight
2008 · 14 wins
Halloween
1978 · 13 wins
Final Destination
2000 · 12 wins
Halloween II
1981 · 11 wins
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