Black Irish

In South Boston things are not going well in the house of an Irish Catholic family. The father is distant and hard, the mother worn out, and the older brother Terry has slid over into drugs and crime. Sixteen year old Cole is trying to make the state baseball championships. But he is also the one carrying the load at home, and every move his brother makes gets under his feet. Brad Gann wrote and directed it, and the film uses the shape of a sports picture without promising to end in a victory; what it is really about is how exhausting it is to try to be good inside a family. Brendan Gleeson plays the father and Melissa Leo the mother, while Michael Angarano carries Cole. Religion, the neighbourhood and the family stand here as both a shelter and a weight on the back. The tone is heavy throughout but not without hope.