Writer & Director / John Butler (THE BACHELOR WEEKEND)
Stars/ Fionn O’Shea, Nicholas Galitzine, Andrew Scott, Moe Dunford and Michael McElhatton

The surprise screening at this year’s Melbourne Queer Film Festival was this Irish comedy/drama about an unlikely friendship that develops between two young men who are polar opposites. Ned (O’Shea) has just arrived at his new boarding school outside of Dublin and is instantly singled out and bullied for his lack of interest in rugby. Soon after his arrival, Ned is introduced to his new roommate Conor (Galitzine), who is a star rugby player and left his previous school for getting into fights with other students. At first, there is instant dismissal of one another. But as the two guys begin to realise that they share more in common than first thought, the genuine friendship they’re beginning to form is challenged when it is discovered by certain members of the school hierarchy.

Better the devil you know, they say. However, when assessing HANDSOME DEVIL, it turns out to be a case of better the devil you don’t know.

Rather than casually strolling down the clichéd path paved its way, this rather quirky comedy/drama takes a few purposeful strides into a direction that is different than earlier predicted. As such, HANDSOME DEVIL is a better and more meaningful movie for doing so. The themes that it raises from here do help the movie to recover from its sporadic awkward execution and some wooden acting from lesser known members of the cast. Narrating the story in past-tense, Fionn O’Shea (from TV Series Roy) along with his co-star Nicholas Galitzine (HIGH STRUNG) display moments of genuinely good acting, though their level is inconsistent throughout. Bolstering the film is the presence of a couple of actors with more experience in Andrew Scott (DENIAL), as a teacher to the pupils and Michael McElhatton (TV Series Game of Thrones), the boarding school headmaster.

HANDSOME DEVIL will resonate in parts with most of its audience.

3 stars

Viewer Discretion/ M (coarse language and violence)

Trailer / HANDSOME DEVIL

Moviedoc thanks Rialto Distribution and The Backlot Studios for the invite to the screening of this film.

Review by Moviedoc / “LIKE” on Facebook – Moviedoc

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