Are British Isles Cinema vibes having a moment?

Whether Adolescence was the best series gig to make it to Netflix since Better Call Saul or Sex Education will not concern us in this piece, as we’ll take a break from the previous format of rating and comparing films or juxtaposing Rotten Tomatoes trappings. We are more interested in how it does follow a pattern from the past years, namely that of Brit-Irish productions taking it up a notch, as well as dealing with the sensitive topic of fatherhood genuinely in 2025.

The Inexistent Beef

Could be immensely deluded or ostracized from niche Reddit communities that deal with the matter, but I never really perceived a British-American beef regarding the two powers’ standing on film culture and its impact. There’s always been a mainstream vs. indie conversation, as well as a European arthouse cinema vs. ‘Americanized trash’ duel, sure. One whereby the former often think of themselves as superior and more devoted movie aficionados, which the latter might dismiss as bore woke. But real beef?

You barely actually thought of Daniel Day Lewis, Anthony Hopkins, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett or Naomi Watts as these distinctive Aussie or Irish gems, did you? They fit into Hollywood more than Hollywood merged their particular backgrounds in. For every Monty Python, Trainspotting or Ken Loach cult following, even Keira Knightley period piece genre, you had 25 America-set pictures where the protagonist just so happened to come from the big island(s). This would probably follow a generic pattern of indistinguishable art origin between the two English speaking powers. After all, aren’t many folks in awe when you tell them them Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin do not constitute American bands?

The point we’re trying to make here, and sorry for the painful delay, is that a much cooler, semi-underground, prouder and louder form of cinema is making its way to contemporary culture – and so far it’s kind of awesome. As one has hopefully already understood, we are not necessarily separating between UK production & US production, not even British/Irish actress vs. American actor. We are talking about authentic life experiences from authentic places in authentic accents.

Themes’ salience and obsession with fatherhood

Never before in such a short time span did we get as much exposure into i) life in remote Irish or Scottish islands along with the frequent inevitabilities of alcoholism in rural communities in political backdrops (The Outrun this year, Banshees of Inisherin from two years back); ii) struggle of marginalized, semi-ghetto communities in big city suburbs (Bird); iii) anti-British & activist hiphop bands advocating the renaissance of the Irish language (Kneecap).

Perhaps a thread that connects of all the above, plus Adolescence, is their wonderfully nuanced depiction of fatherhood. Michael Fassbender, Stephen Graham, Stephen Dillane and Barry Keoghan show us that you can be well intentioned, yet emotionally or mentally unable. Self-deprecating and sabotaging a decency that you are not fully comfortable with. Succumbing to self-imposed helplessness. Be guided by pride without the veil of macho-ness, yet destructive pride nonetheless. Some of the despicable human beings that happened to be their own fathers had failings which perpetuate and traumatize their offspring, yet the movies don’t absolve them from responsibility. Neither do the sometimes honorable ends justify the means through which they suck in their fatherhood. Life is nuanced in a manner that sometimes the results of these fathers’ failures will lead to their kids committing homicide. Sometimes it will lead to adversity-activated development and growth. Sometimes to drug abuse, and others, well, the kid will be just fine.

Can you even decide who had the coolest accent?

So what’s the big deal with the UK vibes? The newly adored Adolescence could have easily been made in the background of a Chicago or a Minneapolis, if you were to just replace the knife with a gun as the weapon of choice in teenage homicide. Only…it couldn’t. There’s something immensely refreshing about the addictive Liverpool/Irish accent, or the portrayal of a bunch of nerdy, poshy looking school-uniform-wearing British teenagers behaving worse than kids from the worst Baltimore ghetto. This isn’t simply a case of Peaky Blinders having rendered Isles’ accents and mannerisms cool all of a sudden, but more of a conscious decision to start making real cinema out of real situations with real actors and actresses. Following the Sex Education mold, we are offered a peak at surprisingly majestic, cinematic landscapes of a country many consider dull, orderly or picturesquely unimaginative.

Part of the explanation for this renaissance inevitably lies with the golden generation in Irish talent. Cillian Murphy, Saoirse Ronan, Barry Keoghan, Paul Mescal are unfair. Let us not miss the forest for the trees though. This breath of fresh air is more easily explained by the arrival of a new batch of directors who will hopefully not become one hit wonders. Most of these, and not by coincidence, to the delight of our female readers, happen to be women. Charlotte Wells, Andrea Arnold, and Nora Fingscheidt (director of Aftersun, Bird and The Outrun respectively), have given us significantly less conventional and more surreal narratives, with characters fuelled by life as well as dreams, rather than a factory of predictable caricatures. The vertigo you’ll often experience from the camera movements and angles at the start of such movies is far from accidental or audience loathing. They are usually a prelude about a picture that is grounded somewhere between the bleak realities of our time, the unforgiving scourges of capitalism, and the complexity of the human soul.

What’s the point of this piece then? Just low key hating on the stupid Oscars?

There wasn’t a single inspiration in cooking up the idea to write this piece. Six months ago I wanted to write something about how under the radar the excellent The Outrun flew. Then considered putting together an indignant repudiation about how Bird was the real voicegiver to the marginalized unlike the inexplicably overrated Anora. Failing those I almost convinced myself to write about the miniscule chances of a movie about a band advocating drug use with barely listenable beats that is rather unrecognizable to the mainstream viewer being as fucking good as it was (saluting you, Kneecap). In what is another interesting conversation, the latter are slowly becoming the voice for a generation desperate for politicized music, genuine rebellion and generally all of what hiphop was initially meant to stand for. More crucially, it came at a time where bands we used to respect and love still accept to do gigs in Israel.

It is not without a bit of shame and defeatism the writer will admit that many of the productions so thoroughly enjoyed were made possible via the contribution of the BBC. Puking in my mouth a bit, but so is life. However one can hardly think of two films that perfectly complete and encapsulate the idea and meaning of going to the cinema as much as Bird and The Outrun did. Simultaneously touching on issues like teenage parenthood and subsequent parentification, big city isolation, gentrification & segregation, mental illness & substance abuse and environmental conservation among more, without appearing or feeling contrived or confused in the depths of exploration attempted, should be nearly impossible. Maybe what separates these from similarly interesting American counterparts is dwelling on these hard topics without giving formulaic answers or potential explanations to everything.

In a nutshell, nearly all of the films and series that struck home and provoked meaningful emotions in me this year had a positively Scot-Irish-British nuance to them. As much as it’s a disservice to try and handpick a set of themes, out of the myriad ones explored in these beautiful movies for the sake of reviewing them, a few of the most essential were dropped here. Along with ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig‘, the Iranian picture that was miraculously shot despite the turbulences of making it at this time and place, Bird and Outrun probably complete the podium for strongest and most memorable films of 2024. Kneecap wasn’t far behind. Even if you aren’t convinced by how all the above societal issues are brought together in film, the popcorn room has seemingly taken an impossible task and pulled through. The British Isles look cool again.