Bring Them Down

Christopher Andrews' "Bring Them Down" (2024) unfolds like a storm on the horizon; slow-building, inevitable, and impossible to escape

It's a dark fable about grief, guilt, and generational violence wrapped in the raw sinew of a rural Irish revenge tale. But to call it merely a revenge film is too simple. This is a story of festering wounds, both literal and metaphorical, where the past clings like mud on boots and the future is as uncertain as the mist that blankets the hills.

Set against the desolate beauty of Ireland's sheep-farming countryside, the film follows Michael (Christopher Abbott, in a stunning performance that required him to learn Irish for full authenticity), a man crushed under the weight of an old tragedy - a car crash that took his mother's life, leaving his then-girlfriend, Caroline (Nora-Jane Noone), permanently scarred. Hers is a face marked by past violence, a visible reminder of the destruction left in the wake of unchecked male rage.

Now, Michael exists in a limbo of quiet guilt, tending to his father's flock, his penance written in solitude and labor. But when two of his rams go missing, his search reignites an ancient feud, one that will demand fresh blood to settle old debts.

There's something Biblical about Bring Them Down, and not just in its themes of sacrifice and retribution. The violence, when it comes, is wrathful - sudden, punishing, and without mercy. The camera, once composed and watchful, shifts into a frantic, handheld panic, mirroring the chaos that erupts when civility and restraint finally give way.

It's the kind of horror that doesn't just shock - it lingers, staining the landscape like a permanent bruise.

Abbott delivers a brooding, internal performance, his face a mask of quiet suffering. But it's Nora-Jane Noone's Caroline who haunts the film. Hers is the kind of presence that reminds you this isn't just a movie about men and their burdens - it's about the collateral damage they leave behind.

Her scar, a physical mark of past violence, is a stark contrast to Michael's invisible but equally deep wounds.

Barry Keoghan (Jack) and Paul Ready (Gary) deliver standout performances, each embodying a deceptive innocence rooted in old grudges that refuse to fade. Their characters may live in a world that's changing - where technology advances and the local economy shifts - but some feuds run deeper than progress.

And as Gary sets his sights on modernizing the land with vacation homes-Airbnb, really?-the past proves it won't be so easily buried.

And then there's the land itself - windswept, vast, and unforgiving. Andrews, in his feature debut, frames it as both prison and battleground. The sheep farm, the rolling hills, the looming modern development of Gary's (Paul Ready) vacation homes - all of it speaks to a world moving forward while its inhabitants remain shackled to their histories.

At its core, "Bring Them Down" is about cycles. Cycles of violence. Cycles of guilt. Cycles of men making the same mistakes over and over, too stubborn or broken to step away from the path carved for them.

The question Andrews poses is as old as time itself - can these cycles ever be broken? Or are some sins too deep to be forgiven?

Bleak, gripping, and punctuated by moments of pitch-black humor, "Bring Them Down" isn't just a story about vengeance - it's about the ghosts we inherit, the wounds we pass down, and the weight of a past that refuses to stay buried.

Sheep sheep lots of sheep sheep those who are stealers of sheep and those who mutilate sheep for monetary benefit believe it or not and a story of a family who has taken care of sheep for 500 years I guess a movie with good actors playing okay here I am Debbie Downer playing dumb roles dumb characters who basically do dumb things and seem to have no ability to make any good decisions nobody in the whole movie makes really a good decision or they make a half baked one and then go to do what they plan but don't really do what they thought they were going to do sounds like real life but this is not like real life it's just kooky and it ends kooky and the protagonist who isn't a bad feller gets the raw end of the sheep I mean of the stick okay of the sheep it's not really a good movie I endured it but I would not recommend it because it goes round and round and ends up as movies seem to do these days nowhere it's a story that didn't need to be told or made into a movie it's quite dissatisfying and if anyone says it's good or worth watching don't believe it don't believe it baaaaa baaaaaaaa baaaa.

'Bring Them Down (2024)' is a bleak tale of rivalry, isolation, bitterness, generational trauma and an escalating cycle of vengeance. Focused on a pair of father-son farming families who find themselves in conflict without ever really knowing who struck the first blow or why (or, even, what counts as the first blow), the feature is essentially one long spiral into tragedy. Each time our lonely protagonist is wronged, we want to see him get retribution, all while knowing that doing so won't end well for anybody. Just when we feel we have a handle on things, the narrative winds back the clock to provide an alternate perspective and essentially reveal the reasons behind its chaotic chain of events. The information the back half presents isn't entirely revelatory, nor does it excuse the behaviour exhibited by its previously more mysterious characters, but it does double down on the sadness at the story's core by showcasing how much of what happens is a product of misguided youth rather than malicious intent. A mistake spirals into more mistakes, an insecurity leads to unspeakable cruelty, a brutal request is fulfilled before it's ever solidified as being expected. Things near the verge of potentially peacefully resolving only when it's already too late to stop them. The wound has been struck, the other eye is sought. The only question is: will mercy finally win? No matter the case, nobody comes out of this unscathed. Everything is irrevocably changed forever, and this downfall comes seemingly out of nowhere. Pettiness costs lives. Revenge satisfies no-one. One's own actions bring them down, and there's no getting back up.

The film is incredibly engaging, with an inky atmosphere and an underlying brutality that contrasts with its gorgeous countryside setting. The performances are pitch-perfect, an amalgamation of anger and toxicity and sadness and loneliness and misguided attempts at making things better. The father lets down the son, just as the son lets down the father. Although Barry Keoghan is great, he's definitely too old for this role; his character is seemingly meant to be a teenager, or in his early twenties at the latest, and so much of what he does is informed by his youthful naiveté. He's much easier to understand if you keep in mind that he's immature, essentially still a child who craves nothing more than a happy family who love him despite his flaws. However, Christopher Abbot is bang on the money, carrying a tangible weight in his every scene and mixing gentleness with a capacity for violence incredibly convincingly. He also does a great job with his accent and Gaelic-language lines, feeling right at home alongside his Irish co-stars (including a grumpy, chair-bound Colm Meaney as his not-very-nice father). The direction is really confident, making excellent use of silence and letting the performers do their magic even when there's no dialogue. The cinematography is really effective at conveying both the beauty and harshness of the environment, and the nighttime sequences toe the line between genuine darkness and necessary clarity remarkably well. The whole affair just has this really realistic texture to it, keeping things grounded even when it's plot is at its most contrived (which isn't very, by the way). It's a compelling, immersive experience and it's made even more impressive by the fact that it's a directorial debut. Comparisons to 'The Banshees Of Inisherin (2022)' are inevitable, but this is by no means a rip-off of that much more (darkly) comedic effort. It's its own beast, and it deserves to be considered as such. It's a tense, downbeat experience that often puts a knot in your stomach and keeps it there, all while conveying a sense of sadness that makes you want to put your arms around almost everyone you see and give them a hug that says "everything's going to be alright". It's a tough watch at times (especially if you're an animal lover), but it isn't dour for the sake of it. It's an entertainingly upsetting drama that keeps you hooked from start to finish.

We start with a fairly traumatic car accident that goes some way in explaining just why, many years later, the sheep farming "Michael" (Christopher Abbott) is living with his immobile dad (Colm Meaney) and living a fairly unfulfilled life. Their neighbour calls to advise that a couple of his rams have been found dead on their farm and so when he goes to investigate, we meet "Caroline" (Nora-Jane Noone) who used to be his girlfriend before she left him for "Gary" (Paul Ready) and they had son "Jack" (Barry Keoghan). With no evidence of the corpses, he heads to the market to buy replacements only to find that his neighbours haven't been straight with him and that there's quite enough history here to ensure that "Michael" keeps his mouth shut. Meantime, things aren't proving much better for the couple next door as their farm is struggling to pay it's way and when their young son comes up with an unilateral scheme with his thuggish cousin "Lee" (Aaron Heffernan) to raise, rather brutally, some extra cash then things turn violent and dangerous now with just about every element of trust out the window! This isn't a mystery for the squeamish as it highlights some of the real difficulties faced by hill farmers facing financial difficulties trying to make their inhospitable land pay. The story itself here is a bit of a mess, and though it does gradually start to make a little sense towards the end, for the most part it seems a little too thinly stretched and reliant on the time-shifting chronology to tell us an under-characterised story from differing perspectives as the threads rather far-fetchedly come together at the end. It's a fine looking film offering an authentic look at a barely better than subsistence form of life populated by folks suspicious of newcomers and of each other, but I couldn't help but feel this needed a much firmer hand on the storytelling front and Keoghan just too old for the part. Abbott delivers well, and it's still worth a watch - but television in due course ought to be fine.

69TH CORK FILM FEST - #3 (PREMIERE + Q&A)

A fast-paced revenge film that never has a dull moment that somehow manages to pull of the impossible, in my opinion. The entire cast do a fantastic job, but the standout would have to be Nora-Jane Murphy, Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbot (who's accent is unreal for an American). Both do so much more with their respective roles than anyone else. The themes of abuse, violence and the inability to properly communicate are very welded in here. They are also very current in our world at the moment, so they really spoke to me. I'm very excited to revisit this one on general release.