‘The Wise Guy’ Review: VHS Flourishes and Idolisation of 20th Century Gangster Films Elevate Generic Coming-of-Age Story | Belfast Film Festival

As we get further and further away from the technology of the past, filmmakers who interacted with it in their childhood are placing it central within their films. It is normal, of course; filmmakers throughout time have drawn inspiration from their childhoods. Nostalgia is a powerful intoxicant. In recent years, VHS tapes have emerged as a go-to aesthetic: The BAFTA and Oscar-nominated Aftersun used it to devastating effect, while the enchanting Riddle of Fire used it to enhance the panache of its 1980s video game setting. This VHS aesthetic was also a vital component of Jane Schoenbrun’s miraculous horror feature I Saw the TV Glow, one of the very best films of the year. For Sam O’Mahony, writer/director of The Wise Guy, VHS tapes – or perhaps the cinema of Martin Scorsese, specifically – are equivalent to divine intervention. 

O’Mahony’s feature film debut The Wise Guy opens with Francis (Senan Jennings), an 11-year-old Irish boy, as he gets awoken in the middle of the night by his departing father (Paul Mallon), the faint musk of marital distress hanging in the air. He whispers to Francis about feeding the fishes before driving away, leaving behind an old TV and a box of VHS tapes for Francis to watch. As the white noise of a VHS tape screeches across the screen we fast forward to three months later, where Francis is being bullied for his religious beliefs or lack thereof. It’s vague if these are truly his own beliefs or those of his parents but this is ultimately for good reason. It transpires that his father is an attempted rocker, whose musical roots are in anti-establishment, while his mother (Lisa Dwyer Hogg) leads a lifestyle that is unaccepted by Catholicism. In turn, both parental figures appear to place their religious disgust onto Francis.

With his parents now separated, Francis must spend every other weekend with his father and new partner. But Francis, who professes himself as a dendrologist (a person who loves flowers and trees), would rather be in nature than with his father, who in turn would rather be performing as a wedding band rather than be with his son. Francis soon finds his weekends alone, venturing behind the house into the woods. At school, his teacher (Joanne Crawford) attempts to convert the grief of his parents’ separation into a literal conversion to Catholicism. But Francis has the VHS tapes left by his old man; the likes of Casino, A Bronx Tale and Scarface lie  amongst this treasure trove of cinema. Donning a set of headphones, he secretly watches these in his bedroom late at night as his mother sleeps. These gangster films of the late 20th century then become formative to Francis. They become his religion. 

This idea is presented in such a charming, fun way as Francis meets a gangster in these woods (not a forest, as he chastises). This is, for all intents and purposes, the logline of the film: A young Irish boy finds god in the form of Joe Pesci. As with the best loglines, it isn’t quite as simple as that. Instead of Pesci taking the form of the ‘wise guy’, it’s Darrel D’Silva, who chews up this role with such fervour that you would think he was an original cast member of Goodfellas. With a mouth full of expletives, this wise guy becomes a surrogate father and moral guide for Francis.

Now whether this guide is appropriate is in the eye of the beholder. Perhaps an 11-year-old taking their vocabulary and moral compass from films way above his age bracket isn’t the wisest choice but it adds to the thorniness of The Wise Guy’s thematic discussion on parenthood and it’s difficulty. While it is a film that is presented on the surface as a simple coming-of-age picture, the imagination of a kid becomes the fertile playground for O’Mahony to discuss the confusion that forced religion/atheism, marital separation and impending puberty enacts on a child. 

A more confusing element to the picture is its placement in time. Upon discovering that her child is watching 1995’s Casino on this old television, Francis’s mum chastises these as 30-year-old movies on a 30-year-old telly. Yet the film feels rooted in a 90s aesthetic, with Francis’s dated clothes and his father’s rusty old van. There is also little, if any, usage of digital technology that exists further along the timeline (the internet does not seem to exist). All the while, we see modern cars and production elements that didn’t exist at that time appear intermittently in the background. Perhaps it is just an overthink to a production oversight (what are critics good for, eh?) but it adds an atemporal lens to the picture. That perhaps it is a comment on Northern Ireland’s historic refusal to secede on certain matters in relation to sexuality and religion that place it out of sync with modern times. This chronological displacement is also highlighted by its digital sheen. Cinematographer Thomas McKeown shoots this quite beautifully – the luscious green of the woods pop when in the frame – but also in a way that is almost too glossy for the demands of the story. 

There are some really charming flourishes in The Wise Guy, specifically of this video aesthetic; Francis is knocked unconscious to the sound of a video tape stopping, while it is also delightfully playful about utilising freeze frames, a cinematic touchstone of gangster films. It’s these touches that set The Wise Guy apart from the films it feels similar to. Those of Céline Sciamma’s wonderful, fantastical Petite Maman and Garth Jennings’ whimsical Son of Rambow are its major film cousins in tone and content. The coming of age genre is well trodden in cinema, and few manage to set themselves apart from the crop of generic fare. But O’Mahony is successful in bringing together elements of the genre without ever making these clichés seem trite, allowing the picture to feel alive and fresh in spite of these broad genre strokes. 

Grade: B

This review of The Wise Guy is from the 2024 Belfast Film Festival, where it played as the Closing Gala film. There is no international distribution for the film at this time.