I
n an abandoned Belfast church - the Holy Rosary, no less - something is going down. There’s a giant balloon of MDMA hanging from the ceiling. Nuns with guns. And is that Alec Baldwin sitting on a bench in a priest’s outfit? Welcome to the world of
Pixie,
an Irish road movie comedy-thriller that makes
Father Ted
look like a trip to confession.
COUNTRY LIFE Olivia Cooke, Ben Hardy and Daryl McCormack as three friends in Pixie.
GETTY, PARAMOUNT
As the stage is set for a shoot-out, director Barnaby Thompson (St. Trinians) dons his earplugs and (loudly) jokes: “I’ll be in my trailer.” Standing close by is Olivia Cooke (Ready Player One), who plays the titular schemer from Sligo, and the two lads Pixie has in tow - best friends Frank (Bohemian Rhapsody’s Ben Hardy) and Harland (Peaky Blinders’ Daryl McCormack), both way out of their depth.
The script comes from the mind of the director’s own son, Preston Thompson (Kids In Love). “We went on a road trip down the West of Ireland,” says Thompson Snr. “We never discussed a movie idea at all, but he grew up loving Quentin Tarantino, the Coen brothers, Martin McDonagh, and I just think that somewhere along the road, he got the beginnings of the idea of doing a film in Ireland.”
Garnering a brilliant local support cast - Colm Meaney, Dylan Moran and The Young Offenders’ Chris Walley among them