As summer 2025 takes its final bow, a film that deserves packed cinemas arrives on our screens. The warmth here matches anything of the last few months, but Christy has grit by the tonne too.
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The feature debut of Cork director Brendan Canty - best known for the video for Hozier's Take Me to Church - is a slice-of-life story about a soon-to-turn-18 tearaway trying to find his way in the world after the worst of starts.
Having been thrown out of his latest foster home, Christy (Daniel Power) moves in with his estranged brother Shane (Diarmuid Noyes) in Cork city. Shane is now a family man with his own business, and Christy tiptoes around him and Shane's partner Stacey (Emma Willis) as he tries not to wake their baby daughter. It's only for a few weeks, but such is the tension between the brothers that Christy could be lighting out the door with his bin bags in a matter of days.
That's the set-up; what unfolds thereafter proves to be a real workout for the heart as Christy reaches the crossroads of just who he is meant to be. Temptations abound in writer Alan O'Gorman's script, but so too do the possibilities for real kinship and connection, beautifully conveyed by a great supporting ensemble that includes The Virtues' Helen Behan, young Cork rapper Jamie Forde, and other members of The Kabin Studio, the team behind the breakout hit The Spark.
Reprising their roles from the short film that first introduced Christy and, briefly, Shane, Power and Noyes make for a perfectly imperfect pair of screen siblings. There are moments when Power looks just a little too old for the role (the short, also called Christy, came out in 2019), but such is the strength of his performance that it overcomes time doing its thing. Canty made the right decision, and his loyalty is repaid in spades. Just wait until you see the scene where things finally come to a head between Christy and Shane - as fine a bit of drama as you'll get anywhere.
A Grand Prix winner at the Berlin International Film Festival and Best Irish Film at the Galway Film Fleadh, Christy will pick up more plaudits in the months ahead. The afterglow for the viewer will last far longer. This is a beautiful homegrown film that now joins the best of company.
"You're salt of the Earth, Christy." Never a truer word spoken.
