“Every fucking story about Belfast starts like this…” star Mo Chara bemoans in the opening lines of Kneecap as a barrage of footage from the Troubles flashes by on screen. “But not this one,” he adds with a smirk we can feel. And it seems writer and director Rich Peppiatt is taking the same stance when it comes to music biopics, tossing the playbook solidified by movies like Walk the Line in the trash. 

Instead, we’re going to get a stylish, sexy, political, and hilarious story about how the Irish-language hip-hop trio Kneecap was formed that cares less about being accurate and a lot more about the fight for Irish identity in a world where only around 71,000 people call themselves daily Irish speakers.

Set in 2019, right when the Official Languages (Amendment) Bill 2019 was first introduced, tensions between Irish and English speakers in Northern Ireland are high. Street hoods Mo Chara (himself) and Móglaí Bap (himself) are petty drug dealers and wannabe hip-hop stars. After a scuffle, Mo Chara is arrested and questioned by the police, but he refuses to speak English with the cops, and JJ Ó Dochartaigh (himself) is brought in as an interpreter.

While helping out, JJ discovers Mo’s book of rap lyrics and is shocked to see they’re all written in Irish. He quickly realizes that not only does Mo have talent, but his music might just be the best way to support the rights of Irish speakers and bring the language into the limelight. Soon, Mo introduces JJ to Móglaí Bap, and the three begin making music together, with JJ as DJ, creating beats out of his garage, much to the frustration of the English-speaking opposition.

Kneecap’s willingness to play with reality to tell a better story is its power and what keeps it from turning into an utterly forgettable mess like Bohemian Rhapsody or this year’s disastrous Back to Black. Fans of the trio will know that the timeline proposed in the film is completely off, and many key events have been compressed and condensed, but Peppiatt knows this simply doesn’t matter. If you want straight facts, you can turn to Wikipedia. Kneecap wants to be bigger and more exciting than that.

It wants the audience to fall in love with our scrappy underdogs just as much as it wants you to fall in love with Belfast without sanitizing it. Aerial shots of the city are full of rich, deep hues, and exterior shots showcase the wealth of political graffiti that adorns the streets, creating a view of the city that’s gorgeous but not romantic. Peppiatt and cinematographer Ryan Kernaghan see the beauty in the mess and the complications and the struggle, and they want us to see it, too.

The biggest surprise, however, is just how utterly captivating all three members of Kneecap are as actors. They bring a shocking amount of nuance and subtlety to their roles, even if they are just playing versions of themselves. Mo Chara, in particular, who also acts as the film’s narrator, steals nearly every scene he’s in, bursting with so much authenticity it’s startling to remember this is his first role. But none of them seem willing to coast, each bringing equal measures of depth and tenderness to their parts.

That they can hold their own this way when the rest of the cast is populated by veterans like Josie Wall, Simone Kirby, and even a powerhouse like Michael Fassbender is even more impressive. And Fassbender, as Móglaí Bap’s political-rebel-on-the-run father, is clearly having some fun again after a long Hollywood hiatus.

All of these pieces come together to create a movie that’s so fresh and exciting that it hits like a diamond bullet to the brain, which might just be the point. As Móglaí Bap’s pop says, “Every word of Irish spoken is a bullet fired for Irish freedom,” and maybe Kneecap the film sees a chance for it to do for the language what Kneecap the band tried to do. By being unapologetically, authentically Irish, and aggressively modern, Kneecap can shine a light on a language, a struggle, and a story that few outside of Ireland have ever felt the need to care about. Kneecap makes it impossible not to root for them.

Kneecap is currently laying down Irish bars in theaters.

Kneecap Trailer: