Between the Canals

Fantastic micro-budget Irish crime drama. Shockingly low IMDb rating, especially in contrast to its positive reviews. I guess the film-going public are STUPID (or don't understand the thick Irish accents, in all likelihood). 'Mean Streets' comparisons are apt in its depiction of working-class best friends tied up in petty crime, and the conflict of interest that begins to develop between them. It takes a turn for the weird with the introduction of a bisexual Nigerian drug dealer with a sword.

However, its financial limitations show in the film's length of an hour and twelve minutes, credits included, as is a musical montage of pictures of Irish people. However, it's brilliant what Mark O'Connor did with so little. Review by Jack from Letterboxed

It actually could have been a half decent movie if it had actually gone with what it started with.

Instead after about 1 hour it turned to the usual ridiculous RUBBISH we see about Ireland.

Who makes this rubbish? are they self bent on portraying the Irish as STUPID violent drunks?

It isn't "Trainspotting" that was done 30 years ago, it lacks originality, it lacks quality, it could have been so much more but the t@at that put it together seemed hell bent on trying to make the Irish look like some sort of trendy Gangster types, in the end he portrayed them as nothing more than drunken retards!

Shame, a possibly good movie ruined by a twonk that wanted to pay some sad sort of "Homage" to better movies from 30 years ago!

This is Barry Keoghan's first film and Peter Coogans early days. Hes the staple of the film. Bad acting overall, but lots of the cast were not actors and inner city locals. So I assume director was going for realism.

Its basically a day in the life of several Dublin north inner city scumbags. Messy story but most of the dialogue is genuine of the characters.

I Love Irish films and TV shows but my good this is awful, the acting is so bad Fair City looks like the Sopranos and the Script has no meaning, I am sorry but that is 88mins of my life i will never get back. I would love to say something positive maybe Peter Coonan (Fran in Love/Hate) is not the worst and plays a really bad role quiet well. sorry guys just not worth watching. with the success of love/hate its a good subject idea but i just think the Script is very weak, the acting is so below par its cringe to watch it has not context and really no plot at all. Hopefully who ever the director was he can try again and come up with a successful movie but i am sorry to say this is a complete flop.

The characters were established early in the film and the acting, I thought, was superb, a few of the young children were clearly aware of the camera, but the acting was a million miles from wooden. Some of the devices and sub plots from TV shows like The Wire are kind of inevitable when the movie is dealing with a similar sub-culture. Although I am an English speaker who is fairly used to Irish accents, I found, not the accent, but the vocabulary and expressions of the protagonists quite hard to follow.

The story was well written and although it had a limited narrative,it was, almost like a documentary, able to describe the community quickly and the main players were put into context simply by showing authority and deference,a nice touch. There is an inevitability about this type of tale and most of tension comes from waiting to see how and who is responsible for the denouement. I will have to watch it a few more times to follow the dialogue but as I love Irish films, for me, it will be an investment worth making.