Cillian Murphy ("Batman Begins," "Red Eye")gives a marvelous performance as Patrick "Kitten" Brady, a flashy transvestite who came of age in Ireland and Great Britain during the English government's battle with the Irish Republican Army in the 1970s.
Told in chapters, such as "When I was Out of My League," or "It's Tearing Me Apart," or "Phantom Ladies," there is not really a lot to recommend here except for Murphy's brilliant reading (one which may even cop him an Oscar nomination, but I doubt it) and a great soundtrack that plays everything from the Shadows to Bobby Goldsboro to Silver Convention to the Youngbloods, among others.
Abandoned as a baby in his small Irish hometown and aware from a very early age that he is different, Braden is an endearing, deceptively tough young man. He dresses in his foster sister's clothes and applies her lipstick, only to scandalize his cluck-clucking foster mother. In his teens, he gets into even more trouble with his Catholic school priests after writing a hard-core story of his birth (claiming that one of the parish fathers, Liam Neesom, is really his dad).
Taking a powder to London, he falls into the transvestite glam rock scene, taking small time show business jobs such as a costume-wearing Wombie with Brendan Gleeson ("Braveheart," "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"), and a cheap suit magician's assistant with Stephen Rea ("The Crying Game," which was also about the IRA and transvestism). All the time he is searching for his real mother, the only clue to her identity is that she looks like Mitzi Gaynor.
His best friends Charlie and Irwin have a relationship, she gets pregnant, he gets killed by the IRA, he is implicated in the bombing of a British discotheque, falls into prostitution, peep shows and finally settles into sort of an ordinary life helping to raise Charlie's baby.
Directed by Neil Jordan ("The Good Thief," "The Crying Game"), this is an interesting picture carried - once again - by Murphy and the music and is based on the novel by Pat McCabe ("The Butcher Boy"). Also look for an interesting cameo by Brian Ferry as a homicidal maniac.
Told in chapters, such as "When I was Out of My League," or "It's Tearing Me Apart," or "Phantom Ladies," there is not really a lot to recommend here except for Murphy's brilliant reading (one which may even cop him an Oscar nomination, but I doubt it) and a great soundtrack that plays everything from the Shadows to Bobby Goldsboro to Silver Convention to the Youngbloods, among others.
Abandoned as a baby in his small Irish hometown and aware from a very early age that he is different, Braden is an endearing, deceptively tough young man. He dresses in his foster sister's clothes and applies her lipstick, only to scandalize his cluck-clucking foster mother. In his teens, he gets into even more trouble with his Catholic school priests after writing a hard-core story of his birth (claiming that one of the parish fathers, Liam Neesom, is really his dad).
Taking a powder to London, he falls into the transvestite glam rock scene, taking small time show business jobs such as a costume-wearing Wombie with Brendan Gleeson ("Braveheart," "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"), and a cheap suit magician's assistant with Stephen Rea ("The Crying Game," which was also about the IRA and transvestism). All the time he is searching for his real mother, the only clue to her identity is that she looks like Mitzi Gaynor.
His best friends Charlie and Irwin have a relationship, she gets pregnant, he gets killed by the IRA, he is implicated in the bombing of a British discotheque, falls into prostitution, peep shows and finally settles into sort of an ordinary life helping to raise Charlie's baby.
Directed by Neil Jordan ("The Good Thief," "The Crying Game"), this is an interesting picture carried - once again - by Murphy and the music and is based on the novel by Pat McCabe ("The Butcher Boy"). Also look for an interesting cameo by Brian Ferry as a homicidal maniac.