Adam & Paul

One day in Dublin with two heroin addicts. Adam and Paul wake on a mattress and spend the hours looking for money, for a vein, and for a way to tolerate each other. Lenny Abrahamson's first film refuses both tragedy and warning; it uses the shape of comedy, and even carries the rhythm of a silent-era double act, which does not soften the pain so much as strip it. Mark O'Halloran wrote the script and plays Adam. There is little dialogue, a lot of waiting, and a cold city. Nothing is redeemed at the end, and the film states that without sentiment. Who it is for: viewers who like Irish independent cinema and films that hold humour and misery in the same frame. Who it is not for: anyone wanting addiction organised into a legible story.